Mystical Word – Sixth Sunday Easter 2025
Readings for the 6th Sunday of Easter
Acts 14:21-27 | Revelation 21:1-5a | John 13:31-33a, 34-35
We hope that everyone is saved.
Who hasn’t wondered if a deceased loved one is in a better place? A few years ago, Pope Francis visited a parish in the city of Rome. He fielded questions from children. A little boy came to the mic but was too shy to ask the Holy Father before a large crowd. So, at the Pope’s request, a priest brought the boy to the pope and the boy whispered his question in the Holy Father’s ear. He asked if his dad, who was a nonbeliever and has died, is in heaven. Pope Francis replied, “God is the one who says who goes to heaven.” Francis put all the emphasis on God, and that is extremely good news.
The heart of the Gospel lies the revelation of God as gratuitous mercy. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus show us just how mysterious and infinite this mercy is. The First Letter of John says, “God is love. In this way the love of God was revealed to us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him.” God first loved us is the basic message. Jesus tells the disciples in today’s Gospel, “I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” God through Jesus wants to be in relationship with us, which implies that God is radical mercy. Therefore, The End of all things or the Eschaton, is the mercy of God. Because God wants to share the divine life with all, God wants everyone in heaven (see 1 Timothy 2:3-4).
There is even the hope that at the end of time all people will be saved. The Gospel St. Paul preached and received is that “in Christ shall all be brought to life…then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father…When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will [also] be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:22-28). The End, the Escahton, is when God is “all in all.” It is an ancient doctrine called apokatastasis or universal salvation, which many church fathers endorsed. Richard Rohr writes, “They [the church fathers] believed that the real meaning of the resurrection of Christ was that God’s love was so perfect and so victorious that in fact it would finally win out in every single person’s life.” Universal salvation rests on the firm foundation that the single reality definitively determining everyone’s life is the incomprehensible mercy of God.
If God’s mercy wins out in everyone’s life, what do we do with judgment, sinners, sin, and evil? What do we do with hell? Scripture and tradition, repeatedly affirm that we will be judged not only by our faith but also by our deeds. While allowing for the possibility of hell, we must note that the Church has never pronounced anyone as being in Hell. The Church, then, definitively holds out this hope of universal salvation. Cardinal Walter Kasper says, “The Bible understands mercy as God’s own justice. Mercy is the heart of the biblical message, not by undercutting justice, but by surpassing it.” So, God’s mercy is God’s judgment.
We can hope all will be saved. This hope is based on the infinity incomprehensibility of God’s goodness and mercy revealed and given through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit. This is a justified hope because it is based on the incomprehensible mystery of God’s love and not on our actions or thoughts. Also, our actions, thoughts, motivations are not equal to God’s mercy. In other words, Divine Grace and human freedom are not equal and opposing forces. There is, rather, a tension between the two with a definite center of gravity: the eternal mercy and universal saving love of God. God is greater than our freedom. Even more, God’s mercy is infinitely greater than the evilest deeds and most sinful people.
We should trust Jesus when he says, “Do not be afraid.” God is thoroughly on our side and treats us with infinite mercy. Cardinal Walter Kasper writes, “God’s being God is revealed in mercy. Mercy is the expression of the divine essence.” This is a summons to radical faith. We need to trust the God is within us is absolutely merciful. Kasper says this divine mercy “liberates you from every anxiety and frees you for new life, new hope, and for love.” So, God’s mercy is a very good reason to hope our dead loved ones are in a better place. The Divine Mercy allows us to hope that, at The End, God will, in fact, be all in all.