Acts 4:32-35/ 1 John 5:1-6/ John 20:19-31
In the Bible, there were two creatures that were given the faculty of speech. Do you know which are the two creatures?
One, of course, was the snake, which tempted Eve to eat the forbidden fruit that eventually caused Adam and Eve to sin.
The other creature may not be as well-known. In fact, this other creature is a dull beast of burden, and this creature is often used as a joke and it also looks like a joke.
But if we turn to the book of Numbers 22:22-33, there was this donkey who spoke to its master who was the prophet Balaam, and who was on his way to curse Israel.
It complained to Balaam about his ill-treatment because it saw an angel with a drawn sword who wanted to slay Balaam, and so it avoided the angel and detoured.
But Balaam couldn’t see the angel and so he beat the donkey till it fell flat and it was then that the donkey spoke. And then Balaam saw the angel.
It was a strange and interesting story in the Bible about a donkey that was given the faculty of speech.
And the angel actually spared Balaam’s life for the sake of the donkey.
So what has this donkey story got to do with the 2nd Sunday of Easter?
In a way, the donkey tried to protect its master, and also in a way, it is a symbol of mercy, in that its master's life was spared.
The 2nd Sunday of Easter was designated as Divine Mercy Sunday.
It was instituted in the year 2000 by Pope John Paul II, following the visions of St Faustina that the Lord Jesus wanted it in this particular Sunday of Easter.
The central doctrine of the Feast of Divine Mercy is what the Lord Jesus told St Faustina: Where the sin is hardest, My mercy will be greatest.
And that doctrine is encapsulated in the prayer of the Divine Mercy devotion.
And it is this: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement of our sins and those of the whole world.
Yes, God offers us His abundant mercy through His only Son Jesus Christ, so that we can experience forgiveness and peace of heart.
And that is precisely the theme of the gospel - forgiveness and peace.
The disciples had sinned against Jesus in the gravest possible manner.
Not only did they lose faith and lost courage when they were put to the test, but collectively, they had also betrayed Him, denied Him and deserted Him.
But the risen Jesus came, not to condemn but to console them.
He came to forgive them and to offer them peace.
Even for Thomas who doubted and had been so obstinate, it was the forgiveness and peace of Jesus that enabled him to say “My Lord and my God”.
Indeed, that reiterates the doctrine of the Divine Mercy - Where the sin is hardest, My mercy is the greatest.
And that is what the Risen Christ offers us at every Mass, forgiveness and peace.
Through the Eucharist, the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus, we are forgiven and granted peace.
But the image of the Divine Mercy also has those words: Jesus, I trust in You.
To trust in Jesus also means that we must forgive just as we have been forgiven.
And Jesus offers us peace so that we in turn can be instruments of peace.
Well, coming back to the story of the donkey and Balaam in the Book of Numbers.
We can say that although Balaam ill-treated the donkey, and it complained about it, yet it forgave Balaam and did not take revenge for the ill-treatment.
And in the Bible, the donkey is an animal that symbolized peace.
That was why Jesus rode on a donkey in His entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
He entered Jerusalem as the Prince of Peace.
I often wonder what happened to the donkey that Jesus rode on that day.
Surely, in a sense, we can say that it was a blessed donkey, since it had the privilege of having Jesus ride it.
Well, there is this story about what happened to the donkey. Let us just call it a blessed donkey.
So as time went by, the blessed donkey also aged and grew old.
Then one day, the donkey fell into a dried up well.
The donkey cried piteously for hours as the owner tried to figure out what to do.
Finally, he decided the donkey was too old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway, so it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey.
He invited his neighbours to come over and help him. They each grabbed a shovel and began to shovel dirt into the well.
At first, when the donkey realized what was happening it cried horribly; and then to everyone’s amazement, he quieted down.
After a few shovels of dirt, the owner finally looked down the well. He was astonished at what he saw.
With each shovel of dirt that hit his back, the donkey was doing something amazing. He would shake it off and take a step up.
As the owner and his neighbours continued to shovel dirt on top of the animal, he would shake it off and take a step up.
Pretty soon, the donkey stepped up over the edge of the well and trotted off happily, and everyone was so amazed.
Well, in life we get many shovels of dirt coming our way, and at times, lots of dirt!
But God gives us His mercy, to shake it off and take a step up - to take a step up in forgiveness and freedom.
Yes, we need God’s mercy to free our hearts from bitterness and resentment and hatred, in order to forgive.
We need God’s mercy to be free from anxiety so as to have hearts of peace.
We need God’s mercy to have thankful and grateful hearts so that we can live our lives in love.
If a donkey can speak, then for us to forgive and be at peace with others is certainly not impossible.
And if a donkey can forgive, then we can certainly do much more than that.