Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. Monsignor Fisher is a Catholic priest, a member of the Diocese of Dallas, and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to to enriching your spiritual journey. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com Today we celebrate the Sunday of Divine Mercy. The Opening Prayer God of everlasting mercy, who in the very recurrence of the Paschal feast, kindle the faith of the people you have made your own increase.

We pray the grace you have bestowed that all may grasp and rightly understand in what font they have been washed, by whose spirit they have been reborn, by whose blood they have been redeemed, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, 1, 1 God, forever and ever. Amen. A reading from the Acts of the Apostles, 4th chapter 32, 35 the community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common with great power. The apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owed property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need. The Word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good his love is everlasting. A reading from the first Letter of John, fifth chapter, first through the sixth verse. Beloved, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by Him. In this way we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this that we keep his commandments? His commandments are not burdensome.

For whoever is begotten by God conquers the world, and the victor that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies and the Spirit is truth. The word of the Lord. Hallelujah.

Verse. You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord. Blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe the Gospel. For this Sunday of Divine mercy is taken from John 20: chapter 19:30, first verse. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The disciples rejoiced when they saw him. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. Thomas, called Didymus, one of the 12, was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples said to him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Now, a week later, his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and bring your hand and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving, but believe. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God.

Jesus said to him, have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. The Gospel of the Lord SA it’s fascinating to me that after the great feast of Easter, the celebration of a new way of understanding God and understanding who we are and why we’re here focuses on this one key element that Christ won for us and changed the relationship we have with him. When he died for our sins, he offered us redemption.

The blood that removes completely the separation that sin was causing always with our relationship with God. So the shift from the Old Testament, the New Testament is so dramatic and so powerful that it’s often missed. And the reason it’s so different is because human beings became different from the Old Testament. To the New Testament, let’s just say the Old Testament lasted for close to over 2000 years of God working with people, trying to get them to understand who he is and what he wants from them. And he was desperate to help them realize that they were caught in a way of life that was so self centered and that they were often at odds with their brothers and sisters. And when they were, they were filled with anger and resentment and destructive behavior.

It was their nature, lower nature. It’s all focused on self. You harm me, I’ll harm you even worse. You do something negative to me, I will make sure you’re punished. Because you have damaged me, you have hurt me. The evolution of human beings is a constant slow movement from a self centered life to an other centered life.

And when we’re focused on self, the one thing can be used against us or with us is the idea that if you don’t do what you were asked to do, you will be punished. So if you don’t want to see yourself in pain, then you better pay attention to what I’m telling you. So the whole Old Testament is based on the fear of punishment, which is all focused on self. I don’t want to be punished, I don’t want to be in pain, I don’t want to go to hell. So all right, I’ll do what you say. But I really don’t like doing what you say because I don’t want to do it.

I want to do what serves me. And what God is slowly revealing to human beings is, look, the reason I created you, the reason you’re here, is I want you to connect with one another and allow me to be the source of a life flow that comes from one person to another. If you allow me to dwell inside of you, which is the promise of the New Testament, I will come and dwell in your hearts. If you let me in there, I will do the most extraordinary things. Through you, I can reach other people. You can join me in serving people, no longer focus on being served yourself.

But there isn’t really much joy in being self serving. But what you’re made for, what, what excites you, what gives you joy, is to be there for another person. And you are slowly, slowly evolving into that kind of a person that I intended you to be. And, and so you now in the New Testament, you are ready. 2000 years ago you were ready to hear something that was shocking. And that is that God no longer feels separated from us, nor should we feel separated from God when we sin.

Listen to the way Jesus first appears to his disciples after they had failed so miserably in being there with him and for him. Except for John, they were scared. They were locked in a room out of fear. So when we sin, we’re afraid. We’re afraid of God’s punishment, afraid of disappointing God, afraid of his anger. Sin always separates us.

That’s the nature of sin. So when we sin and God looks at us as a sinner, then we have this sense from the Old Testament that he is now angry and he will punish us and we no longer have his favor. And so in the New Testament, Jesus does this mysterious thing called redemption. And in that moment, what he did is he took away any sense of anybody who feels that I owe God something because I sinned, I must make up for it. I must repair the relationship. He’s saying, no, it’s been repaired.

Your sins no longer separate me from you. I am there for you. That’s what it means. He forgives sin, all sin. And yet many people hear that and they say, well, it can’t be true. Because if he forgives all sins, then sin doesn’t matter if he’s not going to send you to hell because you do something wrong, so why do something right?

Taking away the fear of God and replace it with love is the core of this whole Judeo Christian tradition. Until we understand how loved we are by God, we cannot become who we’re called to be. And if facing our sinfulness, looking at the times in which we fail to be who we’re called to be, if that is the task of being a more mature, more conscious human being, then we’re going to always be confronting our sinfulness. Sins are there for a purpose, for helping us grow. And when we see sin for what it is, and we see the emptiness that it creates and the separation and isolation that it creates, we, we want to turn away from it because that’s not who we are and that’s not what we want. And so it’s essential that we understand that during this period of time that we’re struggling with our self centeredness and longing to be more service oriented, we have to feel that we are loved.

Love is the power of the New Testament. And if you’re told that nothing that you do will ever separate you from the love of God, you’re understanding something that is very hard for the mind to grasp. Because the mind works in justice. And justice says if you do something wrong, you’re going to pay for it. Well, don’t worry, you will pay for it. Sin Always creates separation, isolation from yourself.

It creates shame. A sense there’s something wrong with me, a sense of uncomfortableness with who we are. Sin separates us from self. And then the sins that we commit against another or that are committed against us by another separates us from them. And we get caught up in things like anger and revenge and pay them back. All of that has to be destroyed, removed.

And how is it done? First of all, it seems that if we’re ever going to enter into the place where God intends us to be the person that God has always had in mind that we will become, we have to believe in that promise that God is there to help us grow into who we ultimately truly are, leaving lies and half truths behind and living in truth. How do you believe that God will do that for you? Since it’s a gift that he and only he can give to you if he hates you and if he’s angry at you? The most devastating thing, misunderstanding that we have of our relationship with God is that sins separate us from Him. And that was needed in the Old Testament, but now it isn’t.

We need to believe that he loves us because he has this sense that within each one of us there is this kernel, this beautiful thing called our essence. And if it’s loved, if you believe that it’s there, if you can be touching that that’s the image of doubting Thomas in this gospel is so interesting because these men are locked in a room because of fear that they’ve failed and that God is angry with them. And he comes, he offers them nothing but peace. And he said, I want you to understand your actions did not separate me from you. I am there for you in your brokenness. Can you feel that?

Can you touch it? Isn’t it interesting that the thing that Thomas had to touch were the wounds? And the wounds are the image of God shedding blood for us. I don’t have any way of explaining how it all works. How did God’s act of self sacrificing or self sacrificing his son, how did that work? Don’t get caught in that.

Just get caught in the impact of it. The impact is nothing can separate us from God’s attention, His desire that we grow, his desire that we learn that he will show us things, make us more conscious of the choices that we make, and give us a better insight into what those choices produce. I guarantee you, if your choices are based in a lie or a half truth, they will never produce what you hope they will produce for you. And you ain’t going to end up empty. And so he said, if you can believe in me, my love for you in that state, then you have a chance to be connected to me. While you’re in this world sinning, causing pain and separation from self and others.

I’m in there with you. I’m fighting this fight with you. I’m empowering you to see most especially the impact you’re having on people and its result. Isn’t it funny how we want so much for the peace of the kingdom and we’re using all kinds of means to find that fullness when the truth is right here, kind of in our hearts. Believe that God can dwell inside of you and affirm you every second of every day and give you insight into who you are and why you’re here. And if you know that the reason you’re here is to offer a connection with other human beings through longing for them to not be caught in their sin and to not be caught in the isolation it’s creating, think about that.

God has a plan where he can live inside of you. And if you see the plan and see the value of it, you will resonate the same thing that he’s resonating to you, the same love that you feel from God in your brokenness, you can give that to someone else and then they become more conscious of this God event in the world. That is the healing power of love. I don’t know, we think so much about our actions, how we treat each other. Yeah, that’s important. And sins can be a way of seeing that negativity that we’re laying upon self and others.

But it’s more subtle than that. The core reason that we’re here is to be an instrument of giving a power to other human beings. Just as God has given to all of us who open our hearts to it. We can share that, to give it to another person. That’s what you’re called, to be instruments of this kind of grace. And that would mean that you are a person filled with forgiveness, with mercy.

Mercy is another word for favor. Favor is a kind of love that’s given to people that isn’t merited. Do you know how good that feels when you can have that sense inside of you of self acceptance in your brokenness and want another person to feel the same kind of self acceptance for the brokenness that is just our destiny. And that brokenness is the essential tool that we use to grow up and to change and to evolve. If sin, if the goal of the church, if the goal of religion is to get rid of sin. Well, then, baby, it has failed miserably.

In fact, the more conscious one becomes of their sins, the more aware they are of them. And that’s the process of growing in the direction that brings you freedom from sin, to see it for what it is. So if you’re always trying to avoid it, if you never want to think of yourself as sinning, what you’re going to do is repress so many emotions and feelings that come up that are like shame and guilt and fear and anger and revenge. You know, we just repress them. I’m not supposed to have those feelings? No.

Those feelings reveal to you who you are in your conscious state. And if you’re filled with those feelings, you know that there’s something missing, something that you’re needing and longing for. And it comes first from your understanding of the way God looks at you as a sinner. And then you can look at yourself that way and look at another person that way. And then sin no longer has any power. It will not separate you.

It will not create enmity between you. Look at the opening reading from the Acts. What was the impact on the community of people who understood who Jesus is and what he was offering? All of a sudden, they all are of one mind and one heart, and they don’t see anything that one of them has as the possession of theirs, but it belongs to everyone. That is the most amazing consciousness state that you could be in. We’re all in this together.

We all have something we can offer to each other. Nobody owns holiness. Nobody is a slave to sin. All of it we share. And when we share in the work, in the very essence of what it means to be alive and to be full of this gift called love. And we feel it flowing all over the place between everybody.

There’s no jealousy, no envy, no competition. That’s the kingdom. The world runs on fear, shame, anger. And the kingdom runs on forgiveness, love, patience, unity, communion. It’s a choice. We have a choice to imagine the world as it is or to imagine it as something it’s not in.

The world you imagine is the world you live in. SA CLOSING prayer Father, your. Your son revealed fully who you are. You are the Son incarnate. He was God made man. And we see in this new image of who you are, the lover, the servant you always have intended yourself to be seen as.

And for that we give you thanks and praise, but open our hearts to it. We resist it. We’re more used to a system of fear, punishment. Instead, you’re inviting us into the mystical world of your life, living in us, flowing between us and the people around us. And it’s a world that we’re not familiar with, a world that seems strange to us at first. So please bless us with patience, openness, surrendering to the truth that you reveal in your very person.

Bless us with mercy. And we ask this through Christ our Lord, Amen. Hello, my name is Will Richie and I work for Pastoral Reflections Institute. Monsignor Fisher has asked me to share a personal reflection on today’s homily. What strikes me today is very early when he says the evolution of human beings is a constant slow movement from a self centered life to an other centered life. Which immediately took me back to my mom.

Born and raised on the island of Puerto Rico, she came to New Orleans for college, fell in love with my father and moved back to his hometown after getting married on the island, moved to Faraday, Louisiana. Less than 5,000 people. I don’t know how the conversation went, but I’m the oldest of four and they had decided even before I was born to only speak English in our home. So I grew up in a home where my mother did not speak her mother tongue. I think about Monsignor’s message today and when he closed at the end saying that it is a choice to imagine a world as it is or imagine a world as it is not and that the world we imagine is the world we live in. I only give one example of my mother adapting to the English language.

Can’t imagine all the other things she adapted to without the Internet, FaceTime, cell phones, having to call home collection. She really surrendered herself to an other centered life and especially now that she’s passed. I give thanks for that even more today. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, a listener supported program is archived and available on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com and available anytime, anywhere and for free on our podcast Finding God in Our Hearts. You can search and subscribe to Finding God in Our Hearts anywhere you download your podcasts. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you.

You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas. Dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive producer Monsignor Don Fisher. Produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios.

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