A Well of Mercy
How I wish I could be Thomas at the moment when Jesus says, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side” (John 20:27). Thomas touched Divine Mercy when he touched Christ’s side. Jesus invited him to put his hand into the very wound from which blood and water had flowed.
Jesus’ wounds have been transformed. They have been redeemed. They are not simply flesh wounds. They are the wounds of redemption and salvation. They are the wounds of love and mercy, from which grace is poured out to the world.
To St. Faustina, Jesus said, “From all My wounds, like from streams, mercy flows for souls, but the wound in My Heart is the fountain of unfathomable mercy. From this fountain spring all graces for souls…. I desire greatly to pour them out upon souls…” (Diary of St. Faustina, #1190).
What surge of love Thomas must have felt as he experienced this mercy! What an intimate encounter he must have had with our Lord! Jesus’ glorified wounds are not only transformed, they are transformative. They are not only redeemed, they are redemptive. Thomas’ heart must have been on fire as He realized the depths of Christ’s love and experienced the transformation and redemption Christ died to give us. With what passion must he have proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28)
As with Thomas, often a sudden realization of God’s great love and mercy incites our worship and cracks our hearts open as well. By accepting the invitation to bring our doubts, pain, woundedness, and sinfulness to Him, approaching Him and seeing what He has done for us, surrendering ourselves to Him as we do, He can touch our hearts. It is communion with His limitless love that transforms us when we receive Our Lord and offer our hearts as His abode.
In a very powerful way, the wound in Christ’s side is the very passageway we are invited to travel to encounter His Heart. His wounds cannot be separated from Divine Mercy, for it is through His suffering and the giving of Himself, through His death and His wounds, especially the wound created by the spear driven into His Heart, that His merciful, redemptive work was released.
We can no longer physically put our hand into Christ’s wound as Thomas did. We are called to believe without seeing or touching. But we do have the gift of Divine Mercy and the gift of the Eucharist, in which we can have an equally powerful experience of Christ’s love and mercy, of redemption and transformation. This Divine Mercy Sunday, let us come to Our Lord. Let us pray to Him and venerate Him. Let us receive Him into our bodies. And let us cry out in worship and awe together with Thomas, “My Lord and my God!”
— Kimberly Andrich
Reflection provided by diocesan.com. Reprinted with permission.