People pray in front of an image of the Divine Mercy at a Catholic church in La Paz, Bolivia, May 24, 2023. (OSV News photo/Claudia Morales, Reuters)
Source & Summit: Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday
(The faithful) taking part in the Eucharistic sacrifice, which is the source and summit of the whole Christian life, offer the Divine Victim to God, and themselves along with it.
-The Second Vatican Council fathers in Lumen Gentium, #11
Source & Summit is a feature of The Western Kentucky Catholic online, celebrating the National Eucharistic Revival: Year of Parish Revival. Intended to help Catholics of our parishes to probe the riches of our liturgical year and celebrate the liturgy well, the column will always start with the Bible readings for the Mass of the Day to help us reflect on, and help to “unpack” and expand our experiences at liturgy into the domestic church (the home) and the workplace.
Sunday reflections will be based on the Lord’s Day, the Liturgy, the Eucharist, and, occasionally, community.
Sunday, April 7, 2024
Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040724.cfm
Acts 4:32—35
Psalm 118:2—4, 13—15, 22—24
1 John 5:1—6
John 20: 19—31
The scene painted in John’s Gospel today is a familiar one. After everything that happened, after the world came crashing down, after every hope was dashed, the disciples decided to do the normal thing: they locked the doors, bolted themselves in, secured the premises. In that very closed, protective gathering they discovered the Risen One in their midst who said, “Peace be with you.”
After everything that went down? After all the wrong, the sin, the hatred, the violence?
The Risen One says it again, “Peace be with you.”
After the dashed dreams, the denial three times, the betrayal, the gaping wounds, the terminal pain?
The Risen One says it again, “Peace be with you.”
The Gospel says, “He showed them his hands and his side,” suggesting that in the wounds of the Risen One, there is room for yours and mine.
Peace be with you.
-Mike Bogdan
Mike Bogdan is the Director of the Office of Music and Chair of the Eucharistic Revival Committee of the Diocese of Owensboro.
To learn more about the Diocese of Owensboro’s celebration of the National Eucharistic Revival, visit https://owensborodiocese.org/eucharistic-revival/.
