ALL SAINTS' HOUGHTON REGIS
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • News
    • Safeguarding
    • Survey
  • The Parish
    • People
    • All Saints' Parish Church
    • St Thomas'
    • Choir
    • Bells
    • Schools
  • Our Faith
    • Learning
    • Prayer Resources
    • Rosary
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Easter
    • Mass
    • Walsingham Cell
  • Life Events
    • Baptism
    • Confirmation
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Confession
    • Anointing
    • Home Blessings
  • What's on
    • Coffee Mornings
    • Knitting Group
    • Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage
  • Giving
    • Parish Giving Scheme
    • Lagacies
    • Restoration
    • Memorial Path

Homilies

(Sunday sermons, talks, and teaching)

Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy

8/4/2018

0 Comments

 
1 John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31

Who can overcome the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God: Jesus Christ who came by water and blood, not with water only, but with water and blood. (1 John 5:5-6)

During Eastertide we begin the Parish Mass with the sprinkling with Holy Water which replaces the usual introduction and prayers of penitence. As we receive the water we are reminded of our Baptism and we sing praises to Christ, who says in John’s Gospel, ‘The water that I will give will become in [believers] a spring of water welling up to eternal life’ (John 4:14b). This rite of sprinkling is properly called the “Vidi Aquam” (Latin for “I saw water”) because the chant that usually accompanies it sings,
‘I saw water flowing from the right side of the temple, alleluia;
and all they to whom that water came were saved,
and they shall say, alleluia, alleluia.’
This chant and the sprinkling are clears echo of the words of the prophet Ezekiel which we read during the Easter Vigil where the prophet has a vision of the Temple at Jerusalem and says this, ‘there, water was flowing from below the threshold of the temple … south of the altar’ (Ezekiel 47:1), and that water brought life and healing to all.

This idea of flowing, life-giving water finds its fulfilment on the Cross. The first three gospels describe the moment when Jesus died as the moment in which the curtain of the Temple is torn from top to bottom. As this barrier rips we can glimpse directly inside the sanctuary, inside the holiest part of the Temple, and look, as it were, upon God and his mercy. However, this dramatic moment is not reported be the evangelist John, who at that time was standing near the Cross of Jesus; instead he focuses his attention on something else; the piercing of the side of Jesus with a spear. For John this is the very moment when the true curtain of the true temple is torn. As the skin and flesh of Jesus are cut by the spear blood and water pour out, and here we can genuinely look upon God and upon his mercy.

Time and again the gospels tell us that Jesus himself, his very body, is the true Temple in which we are able to encounter God – because in that body divine nature meets and joins our human nature. The Letter to the Hebrews testifies to this saying, ‘we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh)’ (Hebrews 10:20). And as the spear cuts into the side of Jesus it is as if the tide of God’s mercy and love is released over the whole world purifying and giving life to all whom it reaches. This is the fulfilment of Ezekiel’s vision, and this is what our sprinkling during Eastertide celebrates.

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure…

This Sunday in particular, the second Sunday of Easter, is sometimes called “Divine Mercy Sunday” and, among other things, it leads us to reflect on the marks of the crucifixion, which the Lord Jesus bears of his body even after the resurrection. These are the “visible identification marks” by which the disciples are filled with joy in recognising the Lord, but more importantly, these are the points from which Divine Mercy streams for us, the springs of God’s love. 

Are we struggling with something? Let us look at those marks and see the wounds through which every strife has been overcome. Are we suffering? Let us approach those scars which have inflicted a fatal blow to every sorrow. Are we weighed down by guilt or feeling undeserving of love? Let us approach those marks which have brought us divine mercy and love.

Jesus said to Thomas: ‘Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ (John 20:27b) The apostle Thomas approached the marks of Jesus’ passion as a way of testing the Lord, but just by seeing them he was restored to faith. We should approach them with full trust in Jesus, knowing that it is through those wounds that we are saved.

Blood of my Saviour, bathe me in thy tide,
wash me with water flowing from thy side.
…deep in thy wounds, Lord, hide and shelter me,
so shall I never, never part from thee.
0 Comments

    Archives

    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2019
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017

    Categories

    All
    1John
    1Peter
    1Thessalonians
    1Timothy
    2Corinthians
    Acts
    Advent
    All Souls
    Amos
    Angels
    Baptism
    Beatific Vision
    Benedict XVI
    BVM
    Catechesis
    Charity/Love
    Christian Unity
    Christmas
    Church Fathers
    Civic Service
    Compassion
    Creed
    Daniel
    Death
    Deuteronomy
    Divine Mercy
    Easter
    Ephesians
    Epiphany
    Ethics
    Eucharist
    Eucharistic Adoration
    Ezekiel
    Faith
    Francis
    Friendship
    Galatians
    Genesis
    Gratitude
    Healing
    Holiness
    Holy Spirit
    Holy Week
    Homily
    Hope
    Humility
    Hymns
    Incarnation
    Isaiah
    James
    Jesus Christ
    Job
    John
    Joy
    Judgment
    Justin Welby
    Lent
    Leviticus
    Liturgy
    Luke
    Mark
    Matthew
    Ordinary Time
    Parables
    Peace
    Pentecost
    Prayer
    Prayer For The Dead
    Psalms
    Remembrance
    Revelation/Apocalypse
    Romans
    Sacraments
    Sacred Heart
    Saints
    St Alphonsus
    St Anselm
    St Augustine
    St John The Baptist
    St Paul
    St Peter
    The Christian Life
    The Church
    The Cross
    Thy Kingdom Come
    Vatican II
    Vices
    Virtues
    Vocations
    Worship

    RSS Feed

All Saints' Parish Church
Bedford Road, Houghton Regis
LU5 5DJ

St Thomas' Church
and Parish Office
Lowry Drive, Houghton Regis.
LU5 5SJ
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • News
    • Safeguarding
    • Survey
  • The Parish
    • People
    • All Saints' Parish Church
    • St Thomas'
    • Choir
    • Bells
    • Schools
  • Our Faith
    • Learning
    • Prayer Resources
    • Rosary
  • Worship & Prayer
    • Easter
    • Mass
    • Walsingham Cell
  • Life Events
    • Baptism
    • Confirmation
    • Weddings
    • Funerals
    • Confession
    • Anointing
    • Home Blessings
  • What's on
    • Coffee Mornings
    • Knitting Group
    • Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage
  • Giving
    • Parish Giving Scheme
    • Lagacies
    • Restoration
    • Memorial Path