John 20: 19-31
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041121.cfm
Would there be a way we could compress the entire Gospel into one small sound bite? We’re very familiar with such abbreviated phrases. We see them in marketing for businesses all the time. Television commercials were famous for them: “Have it your way,” “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up,” "Just do it!" Such brief lines embed themselves in us and quickly convey the purpose of that product.
Sadly, we also live in a time when news reports are
filled with inflammatory and emotionally driven words to describe tragedies,
politics and the present health concern we live with: "Global
pandemic" "Numbers moving up!" "Stay home!" “Don’t go here and don’t go there.”
Beautifully, our passage from the Gospel of John this
Sunday offers us a wonderful sound bite:
“My Lord and my God.” The words
of Thomas when he encounters and touches the risen Christ summarize not only
this Easter season but where the Lord needs to be in our lives as well - he is
our “Lord and God” and thereby the center of our faith lives and our life in
general. We have come to see Jesus as not just another wise teacher,
philosopher, theologian or even Doctor of the Church. He is the risen and living Lord and God. He is, as we recently heard at the beautiful
Easter Vigil: the “Alpha and the Omega.”
The beginning and end of all things.
This Sunday and throughout the Easter season, we hear of
startling events for the Apostles which forever would change their lives and
the lives of all future generations of Christians in the Church.
In our Gospel account this Sunday, the risen Lord unexpectedly
appears to the frightened and confused group hiding in fear with doors securely
locked. They hid in fright of what might
happen due to their known association with Jesus of Nazareth and find
themselves paralyzed as to their next step.
We see a community gathered in tension and confusion and
quite possibly some early division among them as various understandings of what
the resurrection means is voiced among them. They will never forget their
cowardly abandonment of Jesus three days before and all of them, save John,
scattered from him in his greatest need.
What could be more troubling? Yet, in the midst of this, Jesus appears
to them, not as a spirit or a hallucination but in his risen, physical body,
eternally alive again! His first word to them is Shalom – “Peace be with you.” He
knew of their troubled spirits.
We can only imagine the reaction of the disciples and the
energy that must have filled that room. John writes: “The disciples rejoiced
when they saw the Lord.” I would guess that was an understatement. In the
process, Jesus addresses their fear and by association, their earlier betrayal
not with judgement but with a greeting of comfort and mercy. Jesus grants them
what they need.
So, he breathes on them, shares his spirit then
commissions them to be ambassadors of himself and the forgiveness of sins. He sends them as witnesses to go and offer
his mercy to all who hear their message of peace. Jesus bestows on them the breath of life as
we recall the breath of God on the lifeless Adam at creation which brought him
to life. Yet, one Apostle was missing in this assembly that day.
While we often refer to poor Thomas as doubtful of the
veracity of the resurrection his statement upon seeing and touching the risen
Lord conveys a Thomas of faith, not doubt. In that way isn’t he certainly a
sign of all of us who wonder, ask, maybe even doubt but still desire to know.
Thomas did not betray Jesus as Judas had done or deny he knew him as Peter but
simply wanted to know for sure in what sounded like an impossible event.
The story is just too fantastic. Jesus well knew their need for proof. Thomas,
I feel, wanted to believe with all his heart but he needed something to hang
on, not just words as convincing as they may have sounded. These physical
resurrection encounters were essential to confirm their faith. This is the
first time in the Gospels, in fact, that Jesus is referred to as God. They had
gone from experiencing the Jesus of history and now encounter the risen Jesus
of faith.
Somewhat unlike the supernatural experience in that upper
room, our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles presents an idyllic
picture of the early Christian community.
They were bound tightly in faith. Gathered with the Apostles, there is
no fear but the reassurance of the presence of the risen Lord in their midst
and they live out that faith as they care for one another; they extend a spirit
of mercy so that no one would go without.
They become a model for others
At the core mission of the Church, therefore, is the
proclamation of God’s mercy and what better Sunday than this one named, “Divine
Mercy Sunday” to proclaim that truth. We see in the Gospel the foundation of
the Sacrament of Reconciliation in which we come repentant and leave healed and
forgiven of sin. It is the mission of the Church to proclaim and to live out
the great commission to preach forgiveness and to live concretely what we
preach.
Remember, these Apostles were not old and filled with the
wisdom of experience. They were young
men, likely in their late teens or 20's, perhaps 30's at the most, and by
nature inquisitive, impulsive, filled with idealism and energy but also
skeptical. One source commented that Simon Peter was likely the oldest of the
lot but perhaps in his 30’s at most, not this old bearded man we see in
artistic renderings. Most of them were fishermen, working long in hard labor.
The Gospels relate their physical prowess: they ran, they pulled nets, they
climbed mountains, they rowed a boat on stormy seas, they endured in the face
of threat, and they walked distances in the hot sun and made their way through
crowds. Such things are not for the physically weak or aging. So the Lord
imparts to them a powerful indelible experience that transformed them from
frightened followers to bold and courageous witnesses.
In light of the present day, an age filled with
indifference towards God and religion, deeply secular, scientific and technical
with rampant individualism, what better time to proclaim the deeper truth of God’s
call to conversion. Although our
society, at least in the western world, seems to be replacing God and religion
with politics and freedom, deep in the soul of each person is still that hunger
for connection and for a joy and satisfaction that can be found only through a
relationship with our Lord and God.
We need to hope and pray intensely for a sign of God’s mercy on us all. The power of faith, the Holy Eucharist and the sacramental life of the Church, which by its nature forms powerful human connections in the Body of Christ, is the only lasting satisfaction for there we come to know risen life and the hope of eternity for all. The risen Jesus gave to his Apostles the power to forgive sin in his name, to form a community of believers in the Spirit, and to courageously preach this good news to all the world - such is the mission of the Church and one we carry not just in words but in the integrity of our lives.
The Gospel passage ends on a high note that should give us all hope: ". . . to help you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have life in his name."
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