EASTER SUNDAY 02 – C
My Lord and my God
(Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118; Rev 1:9-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31)
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“This is written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have eternal life in his name.”
On this celebration of the second Sunday of Easter, which is also Divine Mercy Sunday, let us pray for a deeper Easter faith that transforms us, brings healing and leads us into an experience of eternal life.
The first reading from the Acts of the Apostles speaks strongly of a faith that both heals people, and leads them to belong to the growing community of believers in Jesus Christ as the Risen Lord.
The second reading from the Book of Revelation speaks of a faith strong enough to accept persecution. This book was written by the Apostle John to strengthen the faith and hope of the early Church who were undergoing persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel from John is a literary and theological masterpiece. It speaks of the resurrection of Jesus as the dawn of a new creation, a new beginning. The Upper Room is a symbol of our sinful, fearful souls, our false egos, locked in, seeing the world around us as a threat. The Risen Jesus, living divine life, transcends space and time and breaks through any obstacle, bursting into the confines of our fearful souls.
Earlier in the Gospels, Jesus gets into Peter’s boat, with no invitation, and changes Peter’s life forever. Jesus wants to get into our minds, lives and hearts, and will do it despite our own fear. Jesus can come through our fearful efforts to block him. This is divine life or grace. Grace is what God accomplishes in us despite our locked doors.
Jesus radiates peace and joy, and shows them his hands and sides. The wounds of Jesus are the effects of sin, of our rejection of Christ, of the humiliation, torture and crucifixion that he endured at the hands of the Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers.
The peace Jesus bestows on the Apostles and disciples who denied and abandoned him is God’s forgiveness made known in Jesus Christ. Any and all sin is forgiven. This is redemption, salvation, access to eternal life. For St. Paul, eternal life is the peace, joy and justice of the Holy Spirit (Rm 14:17).
This, ultimately, is the goal of our faith. Jesus breathes on Apostles the Ruah or breath of God, and bestows on them, on the early Church, the Holy Spirit; the power to forgive sin. Jesus gives the Church the power to mediate the divine forgiveness of sins. This is now the mission of the Church, to be bearers of divine love and eternal life.
In the second half of the Gospel passage, we find Thomas with whom we can identify, with his tendency to skepticism. Thomas was absent, alone, apart from the Church. That carries a message – apart from the Church, from the fellowship, faith is difficult to find, and does not come easily. Jesus is seen in the Church, in the life of the community, in the liturgy, in the sacramental life, and in the communion of believers.
The disciples on the way to Emmaus recognize Jesus in the sharing of his Word and in the breaking of the bread. Then, with their hearts burning within them, they hurry back to rejoin the community of believers, the early Church. A week later, Jesus appears again through locked doors. This time, Thomas is with the Church. This time, he sees and believes. Jesus knows the shortcomings of Thomas, his struggle to believe, and respects that. Jesus accepts people where they are at.
Doubting Thomas-Caravaggio
Thomas’ response is “My Lord and my God,’ the greatest affirmation of faith in the Bible. Thomas makes a great leap of faith as he accepts the invisible divine. Let us learn from Thomas and not absent ourselves from the gatherings of the community of believers, from the Church. Like Thomas, we kneel before Jesus and make him the center of our lives.
Our lives are to manifest in concrete ways our faith in the Jesus as the Risen Lord. That must be more than just externals such as church buildings; shrines or the name of schools. Our faith is manifested by fidelity to marital commitments, to genuine caring for our families, answering their emotional as well as physical needs. It is manifest in freedom from addiction in our lives, which is like idolatry or worshipping false gods.
Our faith is manifest in generosity without strings attached, perhaps even in tithing ten percent of our income to charity. It will be especially manifest in bringing more children into the world; into respecting all forms of life from conception to a natural death. It will also be manifest when more of our young people respond to God’s call to serve the Church and the world as priests or as religious.
At the ordination of Steven Jensen as the new bishop of Prince George, a young married couple attended with eight of their eleven children. The father drives a forklift at one of the lumber mills in the area, and manages to attend daily mass in one of the local parishes. They are a joyful, faith-filled family, manifesting their faith in Jesus Christ as Risen Lord by their love for each other, their love for life, and their love for the Church. We are in need of more families like them.
The Eucharist is our family meal, a faith-filled meal that makes the love of Christ on the Cross present to us through Word and sacrament. We are then commissioned to go out to spread that love to all we meet.
So, as we celebrate this second Sunday of Easter, let us pray for a strong faith that transforms us, that makes a difference in our lives, an Easter faith that leads us to experience a taste of eternal life. With St. Thomas, let us also proclaim “My Lord and my God.”
