Today is the Second Sunday of Easter, where we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday instituted By Saint John Paul II. On the occasion of the institution of the Divine Mercy Sunday, he said, “There is nothing that man needs more than Divine mercy. Apart from the mercy of God there is no other source of hope for mankind”. Today our world needs God’s mercy more than anything at this time.

Today we celebrate the greatest solemnity of our Faith. The foundation on which our hope and faith as Christians stands. We celebrate and rejoice that Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. By rising from the dead He has defeated the power of death, Satan, evil forces, falsehood, and injustice and taken the Glory. God made Him to rise from the dead to prove that He has power over life and death. As Paul would say, “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and our faith is in vain”. 1Cor 15:14-15. But because Christ has been raised, we have hope and our faith is credible and that is what we celebrate. That is the reason we shout Alleluia! Alleluia! Indeed the Lord has truly risen.

The passion narrative gives us an insight of what Jesus suffered for us, especially the love He has for us that made Him endure all the insults and humiliation for our sake. Today’s liturgy does not require a long homily, but simply for us to allow the events of the passion story to speak directly to us in the silence of our heart. Our meditation is on Jesus’ suffering and death for our sake. He came and gave Himself completely to us by His preaching, miracles and healing and finally of giving Himself in humility on the cross.

As we approach the end of the Lenten season, we are reminded of our last chance to cooperate with God’s special graces of this season. To show that our last chance with God is not without hope, the gospel presents an event that took place towards the end of Jesus’ life, when He was accustomed to teach in the temple by day and leave the city to spend the night on Mount Olive.