I have been truly overwhelmed by the blood of so many innocent people that has been shed so insanely and viciously over the past week and more.

I have felt a palpable sense of shock and hurt for what it means to the fabric of our society and the human challenge it represents for us to counter in a humane and compassionate way.

There is that refrain from one of our hymns, “The Lord hears the cry of the poor! Blessed be the Lord.”

The cry of the poor!

How do the bereaved who have lost one or more loved ones cope with such loss and the manner of the loss?

And also, how hard it must be for the Lord! Surely this was not the plan when God said, “Let there be light!”

The Lord didn’t mean his creatures to act in this way. Even from the beginning, even before Adam and Eve, there was the gracious plan to send his Son to become one of us so as to show us what it means in God’s eyes and heart to be a human person.

Jesus became The Way, The Truth, and The Life for us.

How we need the unfolding of God’s plan in the Mystery of Christ, and how we needed to celebrate it as we have this past Holy Week.

But what a contrast and challenge has been presented to us in the savagery of Paris, Brussels, and Lahore. How do we react?

May I draw attention to Thomas in today’s Gospel reading to suggest one possible way?

Basically, Thomas found it very hard to deal with the savagery of Christ’s death.
As simple as that!

Let us go back to that note sent to Jesus by Martha and Mary, “Lord, the man you love is ill” (Jn, 11: 3).

Jesus lingered for some days before saying to his men, “Let us go to Judaea.” The disciples said, “Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?” (Jn. 11:8.).

There was consternation among them and they tried to dissuade him. Finally, Thomas said, ”Let us go too, and die with him” (Jn. 11:16).

It was like a passive, aggressive statement: “”I can’t do anything about this decision but I don’t agree with it.”

In Thomas’s refusal to believe in the resurrection of Christ we can sense the pain in what to him was a senseless death, a tragedy that could have been avoided. That pain surfaces in his remark that he wants to feel the place of the nails and the wound in the side of Jesus before he will believe again in Jesus.

Do we see anything in Thomas’s reaction that rings a bell for us? How to deal with one’s pain and suffering, suffering that sometimes what appears to be senseless suffering.

How to allow someone with a gentle message to approach us with kindness and understanding?

We are all involved here! We all need to feel the pain for healing to happen but who is going to help us do that?

Surely someone who has suffered as well and knows the way!

There is a lot in today’s readings that will help us ponder not just the story of Thomas but our story within our world as it is today!

The pain, the senseless suffering, the innocent victims, and the madness of the terrorists!

Who can help us approach that pain? Who has the tenderness required to ensure and protect the dignity of the one suffering?

This Sunday we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday.

Recently, Pope Emeritus, Pope Benedict XV1, was quoted in The English Tablet with these words,
“Man today no longer felt the need to justify himself to God but instead thought God needed to justify himself to man due to the suffering in the world. Despite this, Benedict noted that people still needed the “perception that we are in need of grace and forgiveness” and praised Pope Francis for continually talking about the mercy of God
“Mercy moves us towards God, while justice frightens us before Him. This makes clear that under a veneer of self-assuredness and self-righteousness, the man of today hides a deep knowledge of his wounds and his unworthiness before God. He is waiting for mercy,” Benedict said. (The Tablet, 2 March 2016, p. 14)

Thomas clearly demonstrates that for us in today’s Gospel reading.

With our own wounds and pain, may we respond as did Thomas to the tender graciousness of Jesus to him.

Then like him, we can truly say, “My Lord and My God”.
Frank Gerry SVD