Jesus, I Trust in You!

 

Deacon Dave · Jesus, I Trust in You!

Homily for the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, April 12, 2026. The Gospel of St. John 20:19-31. Theme: Jesus, I Trust in You! 

 Today’s Gospel opens with ten Apostles (minus Thomas who was absent and Judas who had killed himself) huddled together in a securely locked room. They were filled with fear, convinced that they were next on the Jewish authorities' hit-list. They were terrified that what happened to Jesus was going to happen to them. But I’m sure they were also trapped in their own remorse over how they had treated Jesus. That band of brothers needed to be set free, not only physically from that locked room, but also spiritually from their guilty consciences. 

 Suddenly, the Risen Lord appeared in their midst. It was the first time that they saw Him since the gut-wrenching events of His Passion when they had fled and abandoned Him when He needed them most. But just as nothing stopped Jesus from entering into the locked room, so nothing - not even our worst sins - can prevent the Risen Lord from stepping into our lives. He comes to each one of us just as He came to those downcast disciples, speaking words of pardon and peace to them. But what strikes even more deeply about this story isn't what Jesus said to the Apostles but what He didn’t say. He didn’t speak so much as even one word about how they had treated him. No mention and not even the slightest reference to their infidelity, their denial and their abandonment of Him. Instead, He reached out to them with gentleness and affection. Jesus was showing by actions more than by words that He is our Merciful Savior and Brother who doesn’t keep count of our sins, the way we do. He doesn’t allow them to become an obstacle in our relationship with Him. He doesn’t hold our failings against us for He knows well our human weaknesses and woundedness. 

And this tender reaching out by Christ to heal and forgive becomes even more apparent as our Gospel moves fast forward a week to the Sunday after Easter, to what we now call Divine Mercy Sunday. The disciples were again huddled together but this time Thomas was with them. He rejected the news of Resurrection by reminding his companions that their Master suffered a tortuous execution that ripped open His hands, His feet and His heart. Suddenly, the Risen Lord was once more among them and He called Thomas to draw near to Him. He showed Him the marks of the nails and the spear and invited the doubting disciple to examine those sacred wounds. Why? Because they were proof of His great love for us, a love that poured itself out to the very end. They were like trophies from His victorious battle with death and signs that the impossible has indeed become possible. The power of these sacred wounds transformed Thomas into a firm believer. They enabled him to let go of his guilt and accept mercy. These same glorious wounds, still present and radiating power from the Risen Christ, can do the same for us if we allow their reality and what they stand for to sink into our hearts. 

 Today’s Gospel closes with an invitation to trust in Jesus. When Christ said to Thomas, “do not be unbelieving, but believe”, He was basically saying, “stop wavering and put your confidence in Me.” You see, in the Bible the words “believe” and “trust” are interchangeable and so what Jesus was asking of Thomas, and what he is asking of us, is to trust in Him. This invitation to draw close to Jesus and have confidence in Him is at the very heart of the message of Divine Mercy, which is why the inscription, “Jesus, I trust in You”, is printed on every copy of the image. But we know from the experience of our human relationships that trust in a person is only possible if we have a meaningful bond with them. We simply cannot trust someone whom we do not personally know! 

 Jesus was well aware of this human need and so He called Thomas out from among the group to engage in a meaningful one-to-one encounter with Him. He spoke to Thomas’ personal doubts and needs, dispelling the darkness and enlightening his mind. And our Risen Lord does the same for each one of us if we have the spiritual eyes to see it and the ears of soul to hear it. These spiritual experiences of the Lord may not be as dramatic as that of Thomas but they can be just as real and transformational. It all depends upon how we respond to this grace. Perhaps we will have this personal encounter during prayer or after Holy Communion or while serving the Needy Christ in the sick or the poor. He might also choose to surprise us and make himself truly known when we least expect it, such as when we are out for a walk or in the midst of exercising. But in one way or another He will indeed extend this opportunity to those who need it and seek it and ask for it. 

 One way to seek the grace of a personal encounter with Christ is through the image of Divine Mercy that He gave us. This was actually the main reason why Jesus wanted this picture of Himself to be made and distributed. Look at it and see that Jesus is in motion. He is stepping towards you with one foot slightly behind the other and his hand raised in blessing. He comes to uplift and console you, not to punish or condemn! Notice that the marks of crucifixion that He suffered for you are present on His hands as perpetual signs of the depth of His love for you. Let go of any guilt you carry and welcome His healing mercy into your soul. Ponder the beams of light emanating from within Him that symbolize the blood and water poured out for you when His Sacred Heart was pierced on the cross. Let those red and crystal beams remind you that He has chosen to become one with you by Baptism and Eucharist. But most of all look at the inscription, “Jesus, I trust in You” and let it be engraved in your heart, because as Jesus told St. Faustina: “Those words say it all.”