Today is Divine Mercy Sunday!

If you've been paying attention to church schedule of activities, you will notice that right after Holy Week is the week of the Divine Mercy as proclaimed by the late Great Pope John Paul II and this Sunday is Divine Mercy Sunday. So if you made a good confession and took Holy Communion today, God will shower you and your family with countless blessings. We Catholics are given this time of the year to atone for our sins and seek reconciliation with our God. I hope our readers would take this opportunity given to us by Jesus himself as mentioned in the diaries of St. Faustina Kowalska.

For today's Sunday Gospel reading, we should memorize this passage, including all its chapters and verses. It comes from the Gospel of John: 19-31, the Appearance to the Disciples. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 [Jesus] said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 22 And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

24 Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "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." 26 Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." 27 Then he said to Thomas, "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."

28 Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and believed." 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of [his] disciples that are not written in this book. 31 But these are written that you may [come to] believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name."

I asked you to memorize this passage so that you will be armed with the truth, especially when reading books like the Da Vince Code or Holy Blood, Holy Grail or reading the supposed Gospel of Judas. When the controversy about the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail written by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln erupted way back in the early 80s, I grabbed a copy to see for myself whether these authors had proof that our Lord Jesus Christ really didn't die, but instead married Mary Magdalene and sired children whose descendants lives even today. Back in those days, I really didn't read the Bible as I do today, but somehow God's grace gave me the faith not to believe in what was written in the book and I found refuge in this passage from John 20:19-31.

All Catholics who take Holy Communion loudly proclaim what the doubting Thomas the Didymus declared before our Lord Jesus Christ when he saw and touched his Holy Wounds, My Lord and My God! But unlike Thomas, all of us who make this declaration are called "Blessed" by our Lord because we have not seen the face of Jesus, but yet we believe in him and love him. Let me remind you that the very first people who proclaimed that Jesus is the Son of God were skeptics, like the Roman Centurion who made his declaration before Jesus hanging on the cross and then we heard it from the doubting Thomas. What about you? Do you believe Jesus is God?

This particular passage is more powerful than what we read in the empty tomb because as the Roman soldiers who were guarding his tomb were told by the chief priests and Pharisees, they are to say that his body was stolen. This is the very story that is being peddled in Holy Blood, Holy Grail and in the book Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. I have met many Catholics who told me that they have bought this book and they tend to believe in what was written there simply because they cannot separate fact from fiction. But they shouldn't judge that the Bible is wrong especially when they even haven't read the Bible in its entirety!

The Gospel of John, especially today's passage, reveals only the truth that our Lord Jesus Christ did resurrect. What about you? Do you believe in fiction or in scripture? God bless you.

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