Allocutio – April 2022

The 2nd Sunday of Easter is Divine Mercy Sunday, we proclaim and introduce into life the mystery of mercy. The Gospel mentioned that “the disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them”, they were intending to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. They didn’t recognize Jesus at first. The few times that Jesus appeared after the resurrection, the disciples were not able to recognize Him, just as when Jesus appeared to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, “their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him”. We are often in the same situation – distracted, lack of faith ideologically and spiritually, we cannot recognize Jesus. Very often, Jesus’ will is not specific. After the resurrection, Jesus carried with Him a particular feature – He retained His nail marks and the wounds on his ribs. These scars represented Jesus’ mercy, until today, blood is flowing from these scars. We are “nailing” Jesus every day, He is bearing  the sins of all mankind because Jesus’ love is forever, His love is continuous. Jesus’s resurrection was history, but our encounter with Jesus is on a daily basis, it happens every day until now.

Thomas was not disbelieving, but he had to touch Jesus personally to confirm his faith. This is like how we interact with others, we look for a continuously “improving” and deepening relationship. In fact, Thomas wanted to enter into an in-depth experience of Jesus’ suffering, through His wounds, he wanted to experience Jesus’ “Divine Mercy”! Behind what we believe is Jesus’ suffering, He was carrying the cross, to die on the cross is the way to gain a closer relationship with Jesus. Thomas did not really “touch” Jesus and he believed. This is a profound belief which changed his life – recognizing Jesus and willing to change, “blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Jesus wanted to lead our way, His Divine Mercy invited us to a closer relationship with Jesus. We believed that Jesus’ mercy had brought us all the graces on Mary.

Spiritual Director
Fr. Francis Tam
24 April 2022