“The mystery of Divine Mercy Sunday,” says PREPARE THE WORD scripture commentator Alice Camille this Sunday, “is that Jesus . . . moves through the greatest violence history can muster and comes out the other side as dedicated to peace and forgiveness as before. . . . No excuses, no reprisal. Peace and forgiveness. God’s answer to the world’s hostility is in gently extended wounded and glorified hands.” Capital punishment is one of those complex issues that tests our understanding of mercy, forgiveness, punishment, and justice. The death penalty is center-stage this week as the state of Arkansas deals with pushback on its unprecedented plan to continue with the executions of eight men scheduled over a period of 11 days.

Arkansas officials vowed to press on with a frantic schedule of lethal injections, moving on after court orders blocked two executions Monday that would have been the state’s first since 2005. Although the state’s efforts to resume executions Monday night were thwarted by courts and called off at the last minute, Arkansas also won a pair of key legal victories that, for the moment, seemed to clear a path for five other lethal injections on the calendar, beginning with two set for Thursday night.

The state entered this week hoping to begin a planned flurry of executions with no parallel in the modern death-penalty era, scheduling eight lethal injections for a period of 11 days.

If this slate of executions proceeds as planned, it would be a grisly record, one that only Texas can currently claim. Eight men were originally scheduled for execution over 10 days, because the state's store of a controversial lethal injection drug is about to expire. After one man's life was saved by a late-night U.S. Supreme Court decision and two other death-row inmates received temporary reprieves, Arkansas now plans to execute five men over eight days.

Ever since Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson announced the historic execution schedule in February, the state's plan has gained national attention from activists and media organizations — leading to death penalty protests in Little Rock and a response from faith leaders across the state. Whether or not the remaining five death sentences are fulfilled will likely depend on pending and soon-to-be filed litigation on behalf of the inmates.

Here's what's next for the remaining Arkansas executions. The state plans to put Stacey Johnson and Ledell Lee to death on Thursday. Jack Jones and Marcell Williams are scheduled to follow on April 24, and Kenneth Williams' death warrant is signed for April 27.

Legal roadblocks have come down at the last minute in many individual death penalty cases—much like Davis' case Monday night. But there's still the possibility of a blanket injunction that would stop all of the executions, which was originally provided by District Judge Kristine Baker on Saturday.

Meanwhile, McKesson Medical-Surgical—a pharmaceutical company—has claimed that the Arkansas Department of Corrections duped them into providing one of the key drugs used for executions, believing they were providing the drug for medicinal reasons. Though it had previously earned a temporary restraining order against the state, the company moved to dismiss its case because Baker had ordered a temporary injunction over the weekend. With her ruling overturned, the organization filed a new complaint on Tuesday to stop the Department of Corrections from using its drugs—which would effectively stay all five executions.

Lessons drawn from the readings

The words of the Risen Lord to the huddled disciples in this Sunday’s gospel captures the ambivalence many feel about the issue of forgiveness and justice: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Does forgiveness come with some conditions? Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge argued for moving ahead with the executions: “The families have waited far too long to see justice, and I will continue to make that a priority.” Yet the church has been clear in its opposition to capital punishment, and the U.S. bishops issued a statement calling on Arkansas to abandon its plan.

Final thought in light of the news

Pope John Paul II spoke eloquently of the need to defend life, even in the most difficult of circumstances: “The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate, and serve the gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.”