"Christ's Glorified Body Still Has Wounds???" Divine Mercy 2024

 

Divine Mercy 2024 “Christ’s Glorified Body Still Has His Wounds???”

 

Leading up to Divine Mercy Sunday in 2020, I was in my room at the Mayo Clinic having had several brain surgeries.  I was doing Mass every day from my hospital room, but had plenty of time to research my homilies.  I was thinking then about Christ’s Resurrected and Glorified Body still having wounds from His Crucifixion.  The Catholic Church teaches that everyone, at the final judgment, will have their soul and body reunited, and that the bodies of those entering Heaven will be perfect…so I was thinking “Why does Jesus’s Glorified Body still has wounds”?

 

And it turns out that St. Thomas Aquinas, 800 years ago, asked the same question and has a really beautiful answer… St. Thomas said, essentially, that Christ’s resurrected Body still has his wounds because they were earned out of love, and so seeing his wounds in Heaven will cause us all the more to be thankful for his sacrifice for us.

 

And that made sense to me, and I preached from my hospital room 4 years ago that I hope all the victims of priestly sexual assault will still see my wounds, and that we will be able to rejoice together.

 

Everyone here today has wounds and scars…some scars come from surgeries or injuries or cancer, and many of us also have hidden scars of depression, anxiety, or the mental and emotional scars of watching a person that we love suffer.

 

Again, the beautiful teaching of the Catholic Church is that EVERY SINGLE DROP of our suffering can be offered up for other people.  If you haven’t done that yet, I invite you to do that now…there’s no magic formula… you can just say some version of “Jesus I offer my suffering up for _______” or “I offering my suffering up for wherever you see the graces are most needed” and hopefully, when you get to Heaven, those who you have suffered for will be able to see your scars and rejoice together with you!