SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER (B)
7th/8th April 2018

Dear Parishioner

We are on the second Sunday of Easter, which otherwise is called "DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY". The readings for this Sunday are about God's mercy, the necessity for trusting Faith and our need for the forgiveness of our sins. God revealed His mercy, first and foremost, in sending His only-begotten Son to become our Saviour and Lord through His suffering, death and Resurrection. Divine Mercy is given to us also in each celebration of the Sacraments, instituted to sanctify us.

The first reading stresses the corporal acts of mercy practiced by the early Christian community before the Jews and the Romans started persecuting them. Practicing the sharing love, compassion and the mercy of God as Jesus taught, this witnessing community derived its strength from community prayer, "the Breaking of the Bread" and the apostles' teaching read at the worship service.

The second reading: After focusing on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, John reminds us that we practice spiritual works of mercy by obeying God's commandments given in the Old Testament and especially Jesus' commandment of loving others as He loves us with selfless, sacrificial, agape love. Loving others as Jesus loves us also demands that we treat others with God's mercy and compassion.

Today's Gospel vividly reminds us of how Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a sacrament of Divine Mercy. The Risen Lord gave his apostles the power to forgive sins with the words, "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained" (Jn 20:19-23). Presenting the doubting Thomas' famous profession of Faith, "My Lord and my God," the Gospel illustrates how Jesus showed his mercy to the doubting apostle and emphasizes the importance of Faith in our daily lives and to become eligible for God's merciful judgment.

Let us ask God for the Faith that culminates in self-surrender to God and that leads us to serve those we encounter with love

Fr Sabu Pariyadan RCJ

SEND, O LORD: HOLY APOSTLES INTO YOUR CHURCH

Notices:
Please remember to pray for:

Daily for the sick clergy of our Diocese

The sick and housebound

Those who have recently died

Years Mind:
Monday: Fr Thomas Adkins
Wednesday: Fr Anthony Lawson;
Thursday: Fr Patrick Donohoe
Saturday: Fr Owen Fitzgerald, Fr John O'Mahoney Sunday: Fr William Donellan, Fr George Duckett

Next Sunday - 3rd Sunday of Easter (B)

First Reading: Acts 3:13-15, 17-19
You killed the prince of life. God, however, raised him from the dead.

Second Reading: 1 John 2:1-5
He is the sacrifice that takes our sins away, and not only ours, but the whole world's.

Gospel: Luke 24:35-48
So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead.