Low Sunday

Tomorrow is Low Sunday, so called by comparison with Easter. It was also called Dominica in albis deponendam, the Sunday for putting off the white garments. At one time the new Christians who were baptized on Holy Saturday wore their white baptismal garments to the sacred liturgy for all of Easter week and only resumed ordinary clothes on this Sunday, Dominca in albis.

It's also sometimes called Quasimodo Sunday after the Introit, which begins Quasimodo geniti infantes, Alleluia. . .: As newborn babies, alleluia. (Taken from 1 Peter 2:2). Victor Hugo's Hunchback of Notre Dame was supposed to have been born on this day.

In the traditional Roman rite this Sunday's Gospel is John 20: 19-31 which includes the story of "Doubting Thomas". The story of Thomas provides, I think, an additional proof of Our Lord's resurrection. Since he is Thomas, "Didymus, the twin" he is an expert witness. Having been mistaken for someone else his whole life, he's an expert in mistaken identity. If Thomas says it's Our Lord, it is. And not someone who just looks like Him.

Finally, Pope John Paul II declared this to be Mercy Sunday, as Our Lord requested in His revelations to St. Faustina Kowalska. The latest edition of the Pauline Missal refers to this day as the feast of Mercy.