Homily by Fr. Oleh Stefanyshyn on the Second Sunday after Easter
April 6, 2024
Jesus Christ comes to each of us today. He says, as he once said to Thomas, “Touch me and believe. Touch me and feel my mercy. Touch me and witness my love and help.”
“This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
(Ps. 118, 24)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ!
We are experiencing the wonderful days of Christ’s Resurrection. Days when God shows us his mercy and love and bends over each of us to free us from fear, sin, and the devil. He comes to each of us today. He says, as he once said to Thomas, “Touch me and believe. Touch me and feel my mercy. Touch me and witness my love and help.”
Each of us can feel the love and mercy of the Risen Christ. To touch his sacred wounds. And we can touch him through God’s word, Holy Communion, the Holy Mystery of Penance, and also touch him in another person. The Lord calls each of us to go and touch his love and mercy and share them with others who need compassion, love, and a kind word.
Today, there are so many around us who feel sorrow and trouble, who have been kicked from a peaceful life by the hand of death and despair. Jesus Christ constantly shows us God, who is the father of mercy and the father of love. Christ shows us God, who is the father of love, but just love, which manifests itself in mercy. And we will be able to touch and feel this mercy only when we meet the Risen Christ. Although the Risen Christ constantly comes into our lives, he is always near us, but quite often each of us is like the apostle Thomas. After all, there are moments when we begin to doubt, when we don’t believe, when we don’t want to accept trials, and when we don’t want to get rid of sin. We quite often move away from God, and sometimes we even run away from him because we do not want to accept his mercy and love and share them with others. Then we become like the apostle Thomas.
In these difficult moments, let’s not be afraid and let’s not despair, because the Lord does not leave us. He comes to soothe and share his peace. He comes to encourage us: “I am with you; do not be afraid. Together, we can overcome everything. Together, we will win and do everything.”
Let’s open ourselves to this Christ’s peace, my dears, and then we will see how our lives will change. Amen.