Discussion Questions

Second Sunday of Easter

First Reading Second Reading

Acts 5:12-16

FS1. “Great numbers of men and women were added to them. Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets.” Where do you see that happening today? Do you see God’s love working in the medical workers and the people carrying the wounded in Ukraine?

FS2. “They were all cured.” What are some signs and wonders of God’s healing love that you see today?

Second Reading

Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19

SR1. Once, when John the Evangelist is “caught up in spirit,” Christ touches him and speaks to him. Are there others in history, “suffering for their faith,” who have received clear understanding and revelations? Can good things come from suffering?

SR2. In this reading, John says he fell down “as though dead.” Christ says he himself “once was dead but now am alive forever.” He touched him and raised him up. Are you part of his “living forever”?

Gospel

John 20:19-31

G1. Why do you think Jesus breathed on the disciples when he gave them the Holy Spirit? “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life … ” (Genesis 2:7). What effect did this gift have on the disciples’ fear? How about the Holy Spirit’s effect on your fear, in various aspects of your life? What do forgiveness of sin and resurrection have in common?

G2. Where do you think we can find wounded people today? How does Pope Francis say we become witnesses of mercy?

The peace of Jesus made them pass from remorse to mission. The peace of Jesus awakens mission. It entails not ease and comfort, but the challenge to break out of ourselves. The peace of Jesus frees from the self-absorption that paralyzes; it shatters the bonds that keep the heart imprisoned. …

Dear sister, dear brother, do you want proof that God has touched your life? See if you can stoop to bind the wounds of others. Today is the day to ask, “am I, who so often have received God’s peace, his mercy, merciful to others? Do I, who have so often been fed by the Body of Jesus, make any effort to relieve the hunger of the poor?”…  Having received mercy, let us now become merciful. For if love is only about us, faith becomes arid, barren and sentimental. Without others, faith becomes disembodied. Without works of mercy, it dies (cf. Jas 2:17). 

Feast of Divine Mercy 
Pope Francis, April 11, 2021

Anne Osdieck

**From Saint Louis University