Wouldn't it be wonderful if our world today functioned the way the early Christian community did, where "no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own but they had everything in common"? Sadly, that early Christian community morphed from that way of life pretty early on, where the apostles distributed to each according to need...morphed into a dog-eat-dog kind of world where, yes, millions starve, have no home or shelter or adequate health care.
   It is a world that still needs to be conquered if we heed our second reading from St. John where he tells us, "Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Ideally, dear friends, that should be you and me as we continue to celebrate the Easter feast. Hopefully, Easter has renewed our faith and made us ever more deeply believers.
   And even as believers, we cannot right all the many wrongs of our world today. We can't resolve the terrible situation at our southern border. We can't get Iran back to the table. We can't stop the military dictators in Myanmar from slaughtering innocent people, nor can we put an end to the senseless rash of deaths by gun in our land.
   Today's Gospel and the story of the doubting Thomas can, however, be something we can do--and that is, like him, we can place our hands into the wounds of Christ that exist all around us because all of us, to some degree or another, are wounded persons ourselves. We have all been deeply wounded by life at one time or another. It is then we bring our wounds to the woundedness of Jesus. He has been there before us, and he says to us what he once said to them: "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."
   Of course, we cannot do that in the way Thomas did so long ago, but we can be more attentive to the woundedness of people around us: in our families, our own workplace, our schools, our neighborhoods, and neighbors across town and across the world. If only Officer Chauvin had done that with George Floyd, he might be alive today, and we would not have to deal yet again with the unnecessary death of a black man and whatever the verdict of that trial will bring about in our country.
   So the bottom line for this Second Sunday of Easter is this: let us look upon the woundedness of Jesus Christ and confront our own wounds and be more aware of and sensitive to the wounds of so many hurting people around us. And then, Easter can mean something to us and the world that cries out to us.
   This Second Sunday of Easter is also named Divine Mercy Sunday. And so, on this Divine Mercy Sunday, we should pray for God's continued mercy on us all. Moreover, we should be inspired ourselves to act mercifully toward each other--and asking for and granting forgiveness to one another.