2nd Sunday of Easter (The Glorified Wounds of Jesus)

In this Gospel reading, Thomas is like a scientist, demanding concrete data, empirical evidence, if he is to believe what was told to him by the other Apostles: that Jesus is again alive. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

He wanted not just to see Jesus, but to see and feel Jesus’ wounds. And Jesus, seeming to know what Thomas was demanding, appeared and acquiesced to Thomas’ demand. “Peace be with you….Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”

It’s curious that Thomas wanted to encounter the wounds of Jesus. And the wounds themselves are a curious thing. We might wonder why Jesus, risen and glorified, still bears wounds. Here’s why: Just as Jesus was transformed by virtue of the Resurrection, so were his wounds.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who lived in the 12th century, came to be known as the Mellifluous Doctor because of the sweet and spiritually rich body of theological writings he composed. Bernard said the following regarding the wounds of Jesus[1]:

“Where can the weak find a place of firm security and peace, except in the wounds of the Savior? They pierced his hands and feet and opened his side with a spear. The piercing nail has become a key to unlock the door. The sword pierced his soul and came close to his heart. Through these sacred wounds we can see the secret of his heart, the great mystery of love, the sincerity of his mercy with which he visited us from on high.

“Where have your love, your mercy, your compassion shone out more luminously than in your wounds? My merit comes from his mercy. Where sin abounded grace has overflowed. And if the Lord’s mercies are from all ages for ever, I too will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever.”

The river that flows from the opened side of our Savior is indeed a channel of grace that leads upwards to a heart deep within. There, we find a place of refuge, the source of our medicine. There, we find mercy and love that overcomes all our struggles with sin and the regrets we find hard to shake.

As he did with the Apostle Thomas, Jesus is willing to meet us on our level. The great 15th century spiritual writer, Thomas à Kempis, in his devotional book, Imitation of Christ, said it this way: "If you cannot soar up as high as Christ sitting on his throne, behold him hanging on his cross. Rest in Christ's Passion and live willingly in his holy wounds.”

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, we contemplate and rest in Jesus’ wounds—wounds which once were a source of pain for him and a source of shame to us. But now, like radiant jewels, they reveal to us his mercy and are the source of our healing. His mercy is free. We need only acknowledge our need of it and to desire it. In so receiving it, we can then be more effectively, agents of this mercy for others, and for the world around us that so greatly needs his healing.

[1] https://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/media/articles/wounds-of-christ-saint-bernard/