My news feed is full of the phrase “The Nuclear Option.” We heard about the nuclear 
option when the Senate voted to end the use of the filibuster in approving Supreme Court nominations. That use was metaphoric. Now warships are headed to the waters around the Korean peninsula and Kim Jong-Un is threatening war with a more literal version of the nuclear option. Not good.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t exactly have warm and fuzzy feelings toward this phrase. I grew up in the last moments of the cold war and the idea of the nuclear obliteration of humanity seems like a bad deal to me (insightful, I know)
In the gospel this weekend, we will hear about Jesus Christ coming back from the dead and appearing to his followers. I think we are so used to that idea or hearing this scripture that we usually fail to really think about what this means.
Jesus’ death and resurrection is the nuclear option.
God was willing to becoming a human being and then die, just so that he could save you and I from our deaths. What was God willing to give up to get us? Everything. Literally his own life. God stepped over the separation we created through sin to bring us back into relationship with himself.
The Gospel this weekend is a witness to the fact that this really, truly, and actually happened. Jesus wasn’t a ghost. Jesus didn’t fake his death. Jesus died and three days later ate with his disciples. When they doubted, Jesus invited them to touch his wounds.
God was willing to go nuclear to save you. There is nothing God wouldn’t do to love you. God’s mercy, which we celebration this Sunday on Divine Mercy Sunday, is extreme.
The question is how do we respond. Do you believe? Will you accept God’s radical invitation to know him?
LIVE IT:
Do something extreme this Easter to meet God. Take a lunch break to come to Church and sit in silence in the main church. Come to daily Mass. Go meet the poor and pray with them, feed them. Find and read you Bible. Go do something “out of character” for you, something that would be your nuclear option to respond to God’s love.
HNOJ Good Word 