Day 9: My Lord and my God.
Let us go back to the disciples. They had abandoned the Lord at his Passion and felt guilty. But meeting them, Jesus did not give a long sermon. To them, who were wounded within, he shows his own wounds.
Thomas can now touch them and know of Jesus’ love and how much Jesus had suffered for him, even though he had abandoned him. In those wounds, he touches with his hands God’s tender closeness.
Thomas arrived late, but once he received mercy, he overtook the other disciples: He believed not only in the resurrection, but in the boundless love of God.
And he makes the most simple and beautiful profession of faith: “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28).
Here is the resurrection of the disciple: It is accomplished when his frail and wounded humanity enters into that of Jesus. There, every doubt is resolved; there, God becomes my God; there, we begin to accept ourselves and to love life as it is.
Conclude by praying five Our Fathers, as you contemplate each of Jesus’ five wounds. This is the invitation of Pope Francis:
Do not forget this: look at the crucifix, but to look within it. There is this beautiful devotion to pray an Our Father for each one of the five wounds: when we pray that Our Father, we seek to enter through Jesus’ wounds inside, inside, right to His heart. And there we will learn the great wisdom of Christ’s mystery, the great wisdom of the cross.
Background on Pope Francis’ devotion to the Five Wounds:
With repeated references in homilies and meditations, Pope Francis has revealed his special devotion to the Five Wounds of Jesus.
The Holy Father sees in this devotion a path to arrive to the Sacred Heart, and there to find that this heart is the beating heart of Divine Mercy.
He also sees it as a path to draw close to suffering humanity, and to recognize that Jesus has taken his wounds to the Father in order to pray for his wounded brothers and sisters.
Let us meditate on the Five Wounds with Pope Francis as a novena in preparation for the Feast of the Sacred Heart, which this year falls on June 11.
And today we celebrate...