(Caravaggio - Jesus and St. Thomas)
"My Lord and my God"
John 20: 19-31
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/041623.cfm
Would there be a way we
could compress the entire Gospel message into one small sound bite? We’re very familiar with such abbreviated
phrases. We see them in marketing for businesses and politics all the time. In
fact, even more brevity are mere letters rather than whole words such as POTUS
(President of the United States) or DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles), or the
sports world which markets through brief symbols that speak for themselves such
as the “swoosh mark” for a popular maker of sports clothing or the world’s
largest coffee brand with a green circular figure of what appears to be a mermaid.
Beautifully, our passage
from the Gospel of John this Sunday offers us a wonderful sound bite. Upon seeing the risen Lord standing before
him, and in response to Jesus’ invitation to touch his wounds, Thomas, overcome
with emotion, proclaims: “My Lord and my God.”
The words of Thomas
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. If you are ever asked who Jesus is, simply
state: “He is my Lord and God.”
These words of Thomas are a
proclamation of the Gospel message. If
Jesus is Lord and God, that changes everything.
The resurrection changes everything about our perception of God, about how
we live, who we are as human persons, and about the whole meaning and purpose
of our lives.
If Christ is risen, we know
we have a God who has the power to overcome the finality of death and sin
through the death and resurrection of Christ. That our physical death is not
the final word. A God of the living not of the dead.
We know we have a God who
embraced humanity and forever joined it to divinity. When Jesus died for us,
humanity died to sin with him and when he was raised, we rose with him to a new
life. Jesus died but was raised and
transformed in his physical body and so will we. That as human beings, created
in his image and likeness, male and female, we are baptized as his beloved sons
and daughters and offered this new hope.
We know we have a God who
has shown us the way to become what he has created us to be and that this
dignity of persons extends to our connection with others in community, with the
risen Lord in our midst. Through his offer of forgiveness, his “Shalom,” we are
made whole in Christ. In other words,
the resurrection changes everything.
That the central purpose of our
lives is to come to know him, to love him, and to be joined forever in
happiness in eternity with him.
This weekend we celebrate
Divine Mercy Sunday. What greater act of
mercy could there be from Jesus than the forgiveness of our sins? The simple act of Jesus standing before the
confused and frightened disciples on that Sunday evening must have put even
greater fear and wonder in the hearts of these men. Rather than shame them for their abandonment
in his greatest time of need, he offers them his “shalom,” his peace – healing,
well-being, forgiveness and reconciliation. In this tender act of forgives
despite their unfaithfulness, the risen Lord brings them confidence in his
mercy.
This profound and life
changing act on the part of Jesus is of course the basis of our Sacrament of
Reconciliation. In essence that
beautiful healing moment through the confession of sin should each time be met
with a merciful response. We priests, as
ministers of the sacrament, have a humbling opportunity to convey this God like
compassion to every penitent.
So, Jesus breathes on these
startled disciples, shares his spirit then commissions them to be his ambassadors.
He sends them as witnesses to go and offer his forgiveness and mercy to all who
hear their message of peace. At the core mission of the Church is the
proclamation of God’s mercy and what better Sunday than this one to recall that
rich act of love on God’s part for humanity.
Our first reading from the
Acts of the Apostles today pictures for us how we come to know this risen Lord
as we see and touch the Lord Jesus under the signs of bread and wine - the
breaking of the bread and the prayers." Through the preaching of the
Apostles many came to believe. Today, we
continue to hear and believe as we live out our lives in the community of the Church.
Despite all the negativity, the threats, the distortion and anti-Christian and Catholic
rhetoric, the presence of the risen Christ remains. We as his disciples must come to know him and
to touch him through our sacramental life and the mercy we bring to others.
Let the house of Israel say,
He mercy endures forever.
Let the house of Aaron say,
His mercy endures forever.
Let those who fear the LORD
say,
His mercy endures forever.
(Psalm 118 - responsorial
Psalm)
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