There’s something really related about the Gospel we’ve just heard. If we look at the Apostles, they’re not exactly shining examples of bold faith in this particular moment. They’re hiding in a room where the doors are locked. They’re afraid, more than a little confused, and trying to figure out what just happened to their lives. Even though they’ve heard that Jesus has risen from the dead, that Mary Magdalen had seen Him and spoken to Him, that hasn’t fully sunk in yet for the Apostles and you can almost feel the weight of that fear in the room.

And yet, it’s right there, right into that mess, right into that fear, that Jesus shows up. He comes to them not after they’ve pulled themselves together. They haven’t figured everything out. They’re still confused and wondering what this all means. They’re still afraid, still unsure, still very much a work in progress. But Jesus steps into that reality; He comes anyway. And what’s the first thing He says to them? “Peace be with you.”

He shows them His hands and His side. The wounds are still there; they might look a little different, but they’re still there nonetheless. They’re no longer signs of suffering and defeat; instead, they’re now signs of God’s love and mercy. They tell the story of everything He was willing to endure for them…and for us. That’s what Divine Mercy is all about. It’s not just an idea or a devotion. It’s Jesus showing us, in a very real way, the lengths He is willing to go to save us. He’s showing us just what His love for us can accomplish.

St. Faustina Kowalska is responsible for bringing the devotion to Divine Mercy back to the Church, helping to make it a focus for us as Catholics. In doing that, she was being used as an instrument to remind us that God’s mercy isn’t limited, it isn’t cautious, and it definitely isn’t something we have to earn. God’s love, God’s mercy is given freely, straight from the heart of Christ. Now we do have to cooperate with that mercy, we do have to commit to changing our lives once we have experienced it…but His grace isn’t dependent on us.

We see that especially when Jesus breathes on the Apostles, He gives them the power of the Holy Spirit, He gives them the ability to share in His authority to forgive sins. And if you didn’t know, this is the passage of Scripture where the Sacrament of Confession comes from, and it means that what happened in the Upper Room behind those closed doors didn’t stay there. Through the gifts and the action of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles carried that mission out, they went out to share the mercy and the love that they had received. That continues today. God’s mercy keeps going, reaching every generation, reaching us.

If we are honest with ourselves, we all have our own version of those locked doors. Maybe it’s something from the past that still weighs on us, or a sin that we keep coming back to, or even just that thought on our hearts that tells us, “God might forgive other people, but I’m not so sure about me.” But realize, Jesus doesn’t stand outside of those locked doors waiting for us to fix ourselves. He comes bursting through them and He stands right in middle of those rooms and He says the same thing to us that He told the Apostles: “Peace be with you.”

And then we have the example of Thomas. The poor guy gets a bad reputation here; but let’s look at it a different way. If we think about it, Thomas is really just being honest. He struggles to believe, he isn’t sure of what any of this means, he hasn’t seen these things for himself, he hasn’t witnessed what everyone else is telling him. But recognize what Jesus does. Instead of shutting Thomas down, Jesus invites him closer; really, what Jesus invites Thomas to do is quite intimate – touching those wounds and the scars. It’s a moment that the Lord is vulnerable with Thomas. And that encounter changes everything, because Thomas moves from doubt to that beautiful moment of faith, where he says: “My Lord and my God.”

That’s the invitation for us this week. Don’t stay stuck behind whatever locked doors we have in our hearts, those parts of us that we are keeping closed off to the Lord. Whether it’s fear, doubt, confusion, uncertainty, hurt…whatever it is. Invite Jesus into that space and let Him meet us there. If we need to, go to Confession. Bring Him whatever it is that we have been carrying. Because the Lord’s mercy isn’t theoretical, it’s not just a nice thought or something we invoke every year on this Sunday. God’s mercy is real, it’s personal, and it’s meant for you and for me. We have a decision to make: are we going to stay locked behind closed doors or will we allow the Lord to change us and bring us to a moment of faith?

Photo: Wooden Door, Johannes Steuding. Used under Unsplash license.