Background:
Once upon a time there was a man who counted carefully all his grudges. He remembered all the cruelties of the school yard, the taunts from his class when he did something well, the feather-brained irresponsibilities (as he saw them) of the young women he had dated, the dishonesty of his business associates, the insensitivity of his wife, the ingratitude of his children. So many people had done such terrible things to him that he figured that there had to be a conspiracy. Who could have organized such a massive conspiracy? (Andrew Greeley)
General Comments
Reflection
Homily Notes
You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John's Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is more than one description.
When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas' doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, "My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter.
Unfortunately history has remembered him for this scene where the resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem...
3. We Know Where We Are Going
4. A New Shalom
7. We Want Proof
From Fr. Charles Irwin
Who among us, myself included, can say we have never felt like Thomas? Or that at times we wonder if the whole death and resurrection accounts of Jesus Christ are merely the stuff of legend? We thirst for certainty. We can feel at times insecure about reports of the Resurrection. The Apostle Thomas heard the report of the entire Apostolic College yet he would not believe Jesus had risen from the dead unless he could touch the nail wounds and thrust his fingers into Christ’s pierced side. We ourselves are in his shoes. We are forced to rely on the reports of those who have seen the Risen Lord, and we want, desperately want, a direct experience of the Jesus who lives. It is one thing to be told about Jesus, it’s quite another to experience Him.
Saul, the Jewish Pharisee who set about persecuting the first Christians, had his own skepticism before he, on his way to Damascus to crush the followers of Christ living there, encountered the Risen Christ. Later, now as St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, he wrote to the Christian Community he had founded in Corinth and addressed those same questions.
Corinth was a seaport town in Greece, a commercial and intellectual center inhabited by very sophisticated people from all around the Mediterranean. They were no fools. St. Paul addressed them with these words taken from his First Epistle to them:
The testimony of eyewitnesses is needed in court trials. It is the evidentiary stuff of necessary proofs. That being so, I want to point out to you today that after His resurrection Jesus appeared twelve times to different groups in sizes ranging from just one person to five hundred people. After His resurrection from the dead His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene and the other women who had come with burial spices to embalm His dead body. Later He encountered two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Later to the disciples who had locked themselves behind closed doors, to seven disciples while they were fishing, and to a crowd of 500 “most of who were alive, St. Paul notes, when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians.
When St. John wrote his gospel, and we must remember that John was as a young man a disciple of Jesus, he concluded his gospel account with these words: But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
So as we reflect on today’s Gospel account we need to keep in mind that the Apostle Thomas was a real man. He believed only that which he could touch. He would not allow himself to be played the fool. He was the dupe of no one. He would not settle for illusions. He is a rock, vulnerable to one… the courageous pessimist among those of this world’s philosophers who hold to the notion that life is absurd and that all we can do is endure it and then die. The only reality, they say, is violence and man’s inhumanity toward man. Happiness? Happiness is a fool's paradise… a pie in the sky promise of Polyannas. The worst will always happen. We’ve all met people who really believe that and whose hearts are help in that icy grip.
To return now to Doubting Thomas, do you remember Thomas when Christ raised Lazarus from the dead? His character was the same back then. A messenger comes to Jesus and says: “Lord, he whom you love is dead." The disciples of Jesus are concerned about Christ. They know He will want to go to Lazarus. And they know about the political dangers that exist in Judea, dangers to life emanating from powerful persons who hate Jesus. Immediately Thomas, the pessimist, the apostle of the futility of it all, pipes up and declares: “Well, let’s all go and die with Him.”
That was no confession of faith. Rather it was a declaration of despair. Thomas has courage, but only the courage to accept death… not to face life. What makes his character so clear to us, so much our contemporary brother, is the violence of his rejection. I will not believe, he asserts, unless I can see, feel, and experience those wounds in the body of the Risen Lord. His conditions are hard. In his heart what he is saying to Jesus is: "Prove to me that You love me!" That's hard evidence, a firm stone on which to lay a head filled with pessimism. Haven't we, he is saying, been exposed often enough to cruel disappointments? Haven't we often enough become vulnerable, only to be taken in? Why should we believe? After all, if we do then much will be demanded of us. Our freedom to do as we wish will be severely curtailed! Can't I enjoy life now and forget about any resurrected life?
You and I live in an age of immense suffering and death. We live among men and women who have conditioned themselves to see only one reality, namely death, misery, and terrifying treatment of others. We are conditioned to make only one statement of belief, namely that human love is unreliable and that death is ultimate. Even the causes and the hopes and dreams for which men are willing to die are incredible. We fear being open to hope. Our hopes have been dashed so often. My self is the only reality, and I will not become vulnerable to others, to hope, to love, to the chance of a new life, to belief in others and what they say about life, and about the resurrection of the Lord of life. I am a rock, we say, only that which can be seen, tasted, and touched is real. The only certainty is death. Jesus is a myth.
Yet what could be more of an illusion? What could be more foolish? Not to believe in belief is itself an unproven and unprovable belief. He who says he is free from illusions is usually the one that is most often filled with illusions, anxieties, and unreality.
Thomas suffered for his belief in Christ. So often in his life he had been disappointed! So often his prayers for a Messiah who could free him were answered in strange ways, ways which he could never have expected. So often his expectations about God were turned around by God. To suffer because there is no one in whom we can place our love, and believe in, is in itself the mark of a terribly strong desire to love and to believe! It is THE suffering of our times. It is the form that faith is taking us in our day. It is discretionary, humble, searing, and tragic. But it also very sincere, quite loyal, and it is pure. It is the faith of the new young people of our day and age who so much want to believe.
Out of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection came the most beautiful and the most convincing act of faith ever recorded in the Bible. Jesus yielded to Doubting Thomas as He yielded to no other member of the College of Apostles. He surrendered in great humility and vulnerability once again. God stoops over and lays Himself down at our side in our troubled waters and bridges the gap. He sees me and He sees you in Thomas. He loves Thomas immensely, and you and me also. He knows our disappointments, our unhappiness, our frustrations, our misery, and our fears and insecurities over being taken in by someone else. Gently He submits to the challenge of Thomas’s doubts, bitterness, and his hard challenge to faith. He comes to the side of Thomas and offers Thomas His own side.
And from out of the heart of Thomas came forth humility and a purgation that touches us 2,000 years later. All of his doubts melt away. Thomas, the hard-as-nails cynic, becomes submissive, yes even intimate, with the Risen Christ. He is lifted to a height that none of the others had attained, except perhaps St. John. Dazzled and overwhelmed Thomas exclaims: My Lord, and my God! He becomes the first of the Apostles to carry his love and belief that far. No other Apostle had ever referred to Jesus as “My God!" From this poor and pessimistic Thomas, violent in his unbelief, Jesus drew the statement of belief that He had spent His entire life preparing for! From Thomas came the fulfillment of Christmas, the expectations of Mary, and the response God wants from us. From the dregs of human suffering, despair, disappointment and disbelief comes the cry of man ravished by the love of the God who became part of all that it means to be human. From the heart of a doubting and rebellious man comes the response that a yearning God who is a Lover has always looked for. Nothing has so influenced our God as the thoughts festering in the heart of Thomas and in your heart and mine as well.
Often
this Gospel is used as an occasion to prove the Church’s control of the
forgiveness of sins and even to demand more frequent confession.
The
Church, in this perspective, has a monopoly on forgiveness and must be stern in
its use. Patently this narrowly circumscribes the passionate forgiveness of God
which Jesus came to reveal. God may be generous with forgiveness, it is
implied, but the Church cannot and should not. Yet the story of Thomas,
immediately after suggests that such an interpretation of the words of Jesus
missed the points. To forgive is not a right to be jealously guarded, but an
obligation to be exercised generously. We do not earn our own forgiveness by
forgiving others. Rather we manifest the
generosity and implacability of God’s forgiveness of us.
Story:Once upon a time there was a man who counted carefully all his grudges. He remembered all the cruelties of the school yard, the taunts from his class when he did something well, the feather-brained irresponsibilities (as he saw them) of the young women he had dated, the dishonesty of his business associates, the insensitivity of his wife, the ingratitude of his children. So many people had done such terrible things to him that he figured that there had to be a conspiracy. Who could have organized such a massive conspiracy? (Andrew Greeley)
Only God
For some reason, maybe it was his face, God
did not like him. This was unfair, but what could he do. If God had a grudge
against him, that was God’s privilege. But then he had the right to hold a
grudge against God. So he died lonely and isolated, hated (he thought) by
everyone who ought to have loved him. I have a grudge against You, he told God
on first meeting. So what, God replied. I don’t have a grudge against you, so
forget about it!
Then God showed him the people at his funeral
Mass. All the people who had injured him were sobbing in church. Do you think
maybe you missed the point, God asked.
************************
Michel
de VerteuilGeneral Comments
Today’s
gospel reading, like all of St John’s gospel, is an interweaving of several
themes. It is not possible to follow up all the themes together; we must focus
on one at a time, going deeply into it and allowing it to reveal some deep
truth about Jesus, about ourselves and about life.
Here
I invite you to focus on the apostle Thomas; this is in accord with the
Catholic Church’s liturgical tradition for the Second Sunday of Easter.
Therefore, although the reading includes two of Jesus’ resurrection appearances
– both of them deeply moving – we stay with the second, the dialogue between
Jesus and Thomas, and let the earlier appearance provide the context. We
are free to identify either with Thomas or with Jesus, but not with both at the
same time. We need to be clear on how we understand Thomas. The popular
interpretation puts him in a badlight, as “doubting Thomas”. This however is
not the movement of the text, which culminates in Thomas’ admirable act of
faith, the most explicit in the New Testament – “My Lord and my God!”.
We
are more in accord with the spirit of the text, therefore, when we look at
Thomas as a model of faith. He was right to insist that before he could believe
in Jesus’ resurrection he must see the holes the nails made in his hands, put his
finger into the holes and his hand into the great wound made by the centurion’s
lance.
Thomas
teaches us the important lesson that we must not separate the resurrection from
the cross, since we are called to be followers of Jesus. He also teaches us the
truth of the Church and of our individual spiritual growth. We cannot live the
life of grace, the “risen life”, authentically unless we bear in our bodies the
wounds of the cross. This means being conscious that we develop the capacity to
love and to be loved only by dying to ourselves. Our wounds are also a constant
reminder of our frailty, and that it is God’s grace that raises us up to new
life.
St
Paul’s epistles show that the first Christians needed the corrective of Thomas’
faith. They tended to relate with the risen Jesus without reference to his
crucifixion. They forgot that they were called to be “followers of Jesus
crucified”, choosing to die with him so that they could rise with him (see
especially 1 Corinthians 1).
We
Christians fall into the same error today when our lives and our teachings
proclaim an abstract “disembodied” Jesus, dispenser of graces and teacher of
morality – we forget the historical person who was put to death for proclaiming
the kingdom of God.
Thomas
professes the true faith of the Church. We too must insist that the Jesus we
follow is
the true Jesus, the one whose risen body bears the wounds of Calvary.
the true Jesus, the one whose risen body bears the wounds of Calvary.
Jesus
is the model leader and spiritual guide. He is pleased to give Thomas the
assurance he is
looking for, and then challenges him to look forward to the day when he will believe without seeing – always in the Jesus who passes through death to resurrection.
looking for, and then challenges him to look forward to the day when he will believe without seeing – always in the Jesus who passes through death to resurrection.
The
blessedness of believing without seeing came from the experience of the early
Church. Jesus
is not moralizing, but inviting Thomas – and us – to celebrate great people of faith, in our local
communities and world-wide, who take up their cross with confidence in the resurrection.
is not moralizing, but inviting Thomas – and us – to celebrate great people of faith, in our local
communities and world-wide, who take up their cross with confidence in the resurrection.
As
always in our meditation we must not limit ourselves to personal relationships.
We celebrate
the resurrection faith lived by communities, nations and cultures.
the resurrection faith lived by communities, nations and cultures.
************************************************************
John
LittletonReflection
Reflecting
on God’s forgiveness of our sins, we soon appreciate that the fundamental truth
about all of us is that God loves us and accepts us for who we are. The most
effective way to realise this truth in our lives is to receive God’s
forgiveness graciously and permit it to radiate from our lives and permeate all
our relationships. This empowers us to let go of hurt and resentment so that
integrity and honesty may be restored where necessary.
The
English word ‘forgive’ derives from an older English phrase ‘forth give’. Thus
forgiveness is about forth-giving. In other words, to forgive someone is to
give forth of myself to that person, although he or she has offended me and
hurt me. Forgiveness means continuing to relate to that person as if the hurt
or offence had never occurred. It implies allowing that person into my ‘space’
again without constructing barriers or imposing conditions. Basically, then,
forgiveness involves letting go and giving that person another chance. This is
precisely what happens every time God forgives (or gives forth of himself). God
does not place any barriers or enforce any conditions that prevent us from
revisiting his ‘space’.
However,
giving forth of ourselves to somebody who has mistreated us involves taking a
risk. It requires that we trust the person not to act in the same hurtful and
offensive manner as before. There are times when we are challenged to work at
forgiving unconditionally, especially when some people do not understand that
they have caused hurt and damage. Elsewhere in the gospels Jesus prays:
‘Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing’ (Luke 23:34).
It
is not surprising that we might be reluctant to be hurt again by offering an
additional opportunity for friendship and respect. Yet, that is what Jesus
calls us to do. Following Jesus is risky. The practice of forgiveness is
hazardous. Giving forth of ourselves is perilous. In fact, in taking this risk
we can only hope that there is some indication that the person values the
opportunity for renewal that is being offered. This is especially true when
God, working through the ordained priest, forgives our sins in the sacrament of
reconciliation.
The
absence of forgiveness is like a spiritual cancer that, unless challenged,
destroys the fabric of our lives. Very often, we ourselves are the first
victims of our lack of forgiveness. Some of us live with doubts and regrets,
and regrets cause us to regress. We refuse to forgive ourselves, or to accept
that others have forgiven us, and we do not let go of the past.
More
often, however, we may deny forgiveness to people who have offended us. This
can apply to family members, neighbours, friends and colleagues at work or in
school. We harbour bad feelings towards them. We wish them bad luck. We despise
their happiness and we resent their good fortune. We hold hatred in our hearts
towards them and we demand revenge. We avoid people with whom we have rowed and
argued.
We
forget — or conveniently choose to deny — that God has forgiven us.
Each one of us needs to imitate God’s example, particularly if we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. Even at the heart of the model for prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is the crucial phrase: ‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us’ (Matthew 6:12). Forgiveness is essential to Christianity. Today we welcome God’s forgiveness in our lives.
Each one of us needs to imitate God’s example, particularly if we claim to be followers of Jesus Christ. Even at the heart of the model for prayer that Jesus taught his disciples is the crucial phrase: ‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven those who are in debt to us’ (Matthew 6:12). Forgiveness is essential to Christianity. Today we welcome God’s forgiveness in our lives.
**************************************
Thomas
O’Loughlin,Homily Notes
1.
Belief in the risen Christ is about sacramental living: ‘happy are they who
have not seen and yet believe: It is about dying and rising with Christ and
becoming part of him, the church (CoI2:12) – the mystery of baptism; it is
about gathering for his meal that transforms us from being individuals into being
‘one body for we all share in the one loaf’ (1 Cor 10:17) – the mystery of the
Eucharist. Baptism is the sacrament of entering, defining the bounds of the
body; the Eucharist is the sacrament of sustaining, keeping the body in
communion with Christ and between its parts. Both these aspects of the Paschal
Mystery keep recurring in the liturgy; both sacraments are inextricably linked
with one another, and have been since the earliest days.
2.
However, while we may preach these links as abstract items of doctrine, in the
minds of most people in the gathering today the two mysteries are as chalk and
cheese. A ‘christening’ is something that belongs to infants and lots of
people have the children christened because that’s what you do – in all
likelihood everyone in the congregation has been to one such ceremony. And,
while it ‘makes you a Christian’ or ‘a Catholic/ this is recalled primarily as
a social bonding. The Mass, by contrast, is something you go to each week ‘if
you are religious/ and it is about praying, getting communion (optional), and
about ‘getting thoughts of the week’. The ministry of preaching has to try to
permeate these perceptions and reveal the deeper dimensions of religious
practice, and so highlight the core content of Christian faith. Actions tend to
break through the crusts of tacitly held perceptions with a far greater effect
than formal verbal teaching or preaching (recalling that part of the perception
of preaching for many is that it is irrelevant or ‘goes over their heads’).
3.
This could be done by having an infant baptism on this day the people who are
practising and away from the parish on Easter Night may now be back and so can
have their baptism today – at the Eucharist. Or, at the very least, by using
today (as on Easter Sunday) the Renewal of Baptismal Promises (Miss at pp.
220-221) instead of a declaratory confession of faith. This activity, the
baptism or the renewal of promises, brings the mysteries together visibly – and
not just on that most special night (the Easter Vigil) but at a regular Sunday
gathering.
4.
Then taking the cue from the gospel, that the Sunday gathering around the
Lord’s Table for the Lord’s Supper has been a fundamental activity of
Christians from the start (long before we had any of the writings now called
the New Testament), then make the gathering a real, physical gathering around
the table, with a real fraction, and communion under both species from one cup.
5.
The fact that the assembly have to engage in the ritual in these unusual ways,
not just listening to a homily, may help them engage with the mysteries they
are celebrating.
**************************************************
Prayer reflection
“You
who remain ever faithful even when we are unfaithful, forgive our sins and
grant that we may bear true witness to you before all men and
women.” Pope John Paul II, Service of
Forgiveness, March 2000
Lord, we thank you for the moments of grace of this Lenten season,
when – as individuals and as a Church community -
we walked in the footsteps of Jesus by passing from death to new life.
We thank you in particular for the great day
when our Church publicly asked forgiveness from other religions and cultures.
Lord, we thank you for the moments of grace of this Lenten season,
when – as individuals and as a Church community -
we walked in the footsteps of Jesus by passing from death to new life.
We thank you in particular for the great day
when our Church publicly asked forgiveness from other religions and cultures.
We
thank you for Pope John Paul who, like Jesus with St Thomas,
invited us to see the holes that the nails of arrogance and self-righteousness
had made in the body of Christ, and to put our fingers into the holes,
to put our hands into the huge wound which the lust for power has made in his side,
so that we could recognise how, just as you raised Jesus from the dead,
you do not allow his Body, the Church, to remain in the tomb,
but always raise her up to new life.
invited us to see the holes that the nails of arrogance and self-righteousness
had made in the body of Christ, and to put our fingers into the holes,
to put our hands into the huge wound which the lust for power has made in his side,
so that we could recognise how, just as you raised Jesus from the dead,
you do not allow his Body, the Church, to remain in the tomb,
but always raise her up to new life.
Lord,
we thank you for the times when reconciliation emerged triumphantly
from the tomb of conflict:
- the spirit of dialogue between our Church and Jews, Muslims, Hindus,
and African traditional religions;
- the European Union created by former enemies;
- the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland;
- the peace process in the Middle East.
Lord, we thank you for the experience of the military in Iraq.
We pray that they will to hear your voice calling on them all
to remember those who have been hurt,
who still have holes that the nails made in their hands
and can put their finger into the holes they made,
and unless they can put their hands into their side, they will refuse to believe.
Do not let us forget the terrible legacy of hatred and resentment
which had to be overcome;
invite us to put our fingers into the holes made by nails,
our hands into the great wounds made by lances,
so that we can recognise with awe and wonder
the spark of your divine life that is within us all.
Remind us too of those who worked for peace during the long years of conflict
when it seemed that they were working in vain.
How blessed were they who did not see
and yet continued to believe in your power to bring new life into the world.
from the tomb of conflict:
- the spirit of dialogue between our Church and Jews, Muslims, Hindus,
and African traditional religions;
- the European Union created by former enemies;
- the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland;
- the peace process in the Middle East.
Lord, we thank you for the experience of the military in Iraq.
We pray that they will to hear your voice calling on them all
to remember those who have been hurt,
who still have holes that the nails made in their hands
and can put their finger into the holes they made,
and unless they can put their hands into their side, they will refuse to believe.
Do not let us forget the terrible legacy of hatred and resentment
which had to be overcome;
invite us to put our fingers into the holes made by nails,
our hands into the great wounds made by lances,
so that we can recognise with awe and wonder
the spark of your divine life that is within us all.
Remind us too of those who worked for peace during the long years of conflict
when it seemed that they were working in vain.
How blessed were they who did not see
and yet continued to believe in your power to bring new life into the world.
“Whoever
sees anything of God, sees nothing of God .” Meister Eckhart
Lord, lead us to the blessedness of not seeing and believing.
Lord, lead us to the blessedness of not seeing and believing.
“Go
for broke, always try to do too much, dispense with safety nets, aim for the
stars.”
Salman Rushdie
Lord, we thank you for friends, leaders and spiritual guides
who challenge us as Jesus challenged Thomas.
When we commit ourselves to a cause because we have tested its reality,
they invite us to experience the blessedness of believing without seeing.
Lord, we thank you for friends, leaders and spiritual guides
who challenge us as Jesus challenged Thomas.
When we commit ourselves to a cause because we have tested its reality,
they invite us to experience the blessedness of believing without seeing.
“Beware
of the seduction of leaving the poor to think about them.” Jean
Vanier
Lord, forgive us that we want to help those in need without sharing their pain,
we look for their resurrection but do not want to see their wounds:
- young people have been deeply hurt and we serve them with pious exhortations;
- we become impatient with those who continue to mourn the death of a spouse or a child;
- we think we can restore a broken relationship by merely saying we are sorry;
- we propose reconciliation between warring factions without acknowledging past wrongs;
- we pray for peace in the world and do not agonize over its terrible injustices.
We thank you for people like Thomas who will not let us get away with easy solutions;
they insist that we must see the holes that nails have made in the hands of victims,
put our fingers into the holes and our hands into wounds that lances have made in their sides,
and only then believe that they have within them the capacity to rise to new life.
Lord, forgive us that we want to help those in need without sharing their pain,
we look for their resurrection but do not want to see their wounds:
- young people have been deeply hurt and we serve them with pious exhortations;
- we become impatient with those who continue to mourn the death of a spouse or a child;
- we think we can restore a broken relationship by merely saying we are sorry;
- we propose reconciliation between warring factions without acknowledging past wrongs;
- we pray for peace in the world and do not agonize over its terrible injustices.
We thank you for people like Thomas who will not let us get away with easy solutions;
they insist that we must see the holes that nails have made in the hands of victims,
put our fingers into the holes and our hands into wounds that lances have made in their sides,
and only then believe that they have within them the capacity to rise to new life.
“We
admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of
our wrongs.”
Step 5 in the 12 Step Method of Alcoholics Anonymous
Lord, when we are converted from an addiction to alcohol, drugs, power or sex,
we are so anxious to make a new start
that we try to forget the hurt which was at the root of our problem
- the loneliness of our childhood
- the sense of racial inferiority
- our disability
- the fear of failure.
We thank you for sending us friends who insist
that we must face the reality of the past.
We pray that like Jesus welcoming Thomas,
we will invite them to put their fingers into the holes the nails have made
and their hands into our sides, so that they can walk with us in our new life.
Step 5 in the 12 Step Method of Alcoholics Anonymous
Lord, when we are converted from an addiction to alcohol, drugs, power or sex,
we are so anxious to make a new start
that we try to forget the hurt which was at the root of our problem
- the loneliness of our childhood
- the sense of racial inferiority
- our disability
- the fear of failure.
We thank you for sending us friends who insist
that we must face the reality of the past.
We pray that like Jesus welcoming Thomas,
we will invite them to put their fingers into the holes the nails have made
and their hands into our sides, so that they can walk with us in our new life.
******************************************
ILLUSTRATIONS:
1.
Not Much about Thomas in the Gospels; Nothing in the first three Gospels:
If
I were to mention the names of certain disciples to you and ask you to write
down the first word that comes into your mind, it is unlikely you would come up
with the same words. If I were to mention the name of Judas many of you would
write down the word "betray" but not all of you. If I were to mention
Simon Peter, some of you would write down the word "faith," but not
all of you. If I were to mention the names of James and John, some of you would
write down the phrase "Sons of Thunder," but not all of you. But when
I mention the word Thomas, there is little question about the word most
everyone would write down. It would be the word doubt. Indeed, so closely have
we associated Thomas with this word, that we have coined a phrase to describe
him: "Doubting Thomas."
You may be interested to know that in the first three gospels we are told absolutely nothing at all about Thomas. It is in John's Gospel that he emerges as a distinct personality, but even then there are only 155 words about him. There is not a lot about this disciple in the Bible but there is more than one description.
When Jesus turned his face toward Jerusalem the disciples thought that it would be certain death for all of them. Surprisingly, it was Thomas who said: Then let us go so that we may die with him. It was a courageous statement, yet we don't remember him for that. We also fail to point out that in this story of Thomas' doubt we have the one place in the all the Gospels where the Divinity of Christ is bluntly and unequivocally stated. It is interesting, is it not, that the story that gives Thomas his infamous nickname, is the same story that has Thomas making an earth shattering confession of faith? Look at his confession, "My Lord, and my God." Not teacher. Not Lord. Not Messiah. But God! It is the only place where Jesus is called God without qualification of any kind. It is uttered with conviction as if Thomas was simply recognizing a fact, just as 2 + 2 = 4, and the sun is in the sky. You are my Lord and my God! These are certainly not the words of a doubter.
Unfortunately history has remembered him for this scene where the resurrected Christ made an appearance to the disciples in a home in Jerusalem...
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One
of the fastest growing, most profitable investment ventures in today's economy
is . . . . anything having anything to do with security. You couldn't have lost
money in the last twenty years if you invested in storage or security: national
security, personal security, home security, financial security, Internet
security. The dangers of this world seem to be breathing hotter and closer down
our necks. Any offering that promises to cool that threat down is welcomed with
open arms and wallets.
We
gladly invest in "LifeLock" and "Life Alert" and
"Alert Life"- hoping to safeguard both our fiscal and physical lives.
Instead of scripted shows by the Blue Angels at air-shows, we are sending
long-range spontaneous shows of strength in the form of stealth bombers over
South Korean airspace, which offends North Korea. We have "apps" on
our smartphones that enable us to watch our front doors at home and our
backdoors at work, to turn on our lights and turn off our heat, to be on-guard
and on-point, even when we are off-site. We are desperately trying to contain
the chaos of the cosmos.
In
John's gospel, Jesus' first appearance to his disciples is when he comes to
them behind closed, locked doors. Despite the vision of the empty tomb, despite
the version of the resurrected Jesus Mary Magdalene had reported to them, the
disciples were still shuttered and shuddering - clamped down and closed off
from a threatening world. Then Jesus blasts through their ADT security system,
blows out their "Life-Lock," and suddenly stands in their midst...
_________________________________3. We Know Where We Are Going
The
story is told about Albert Einstein, the brilliant physicist of Princeton
University in the early 20th century. Einstein was traveling from Princeton on
a train, and when the conductor came down the aisle to punch the passengers'
tickets, Einstein couldn't find his. He looked in his vest pocket, he looked in
his pants pocket, he looked in his briefcase, but there was no ticket. The
conductor was gracious; "Not to worry, Dr. Einstein, I know who you are,
we all know who you are, and I'm sure you bought a ticket."
As
the conductor moved down the aisle, he looked back and noticed Einstein on his
hands and knees, searching under the seat for his ticket. The conductor
returned to Einstein; "Dr. Einstein, Dr. Einstein, don't worry. I know who
you are. You don't need a ticket, I'm sure you bought one." Einstein arose
and said "Young man, I too know who I am; what I don't know is where I am
going."
And
that is the good news of Easter; that we know where we are going. We have been
told by the Savior that his life and death has promised us life eternal. And
Low Sundays don't change that promise. And unemployment doesn't change that promise.
Neither does divorce, or bankruptcy, or cancer, or depression, or felony, or
failure. Through elation and deflation and every emotion in between, this truth
remains; we know whose we are and we know where we are going, because the Son
of God has promised. And this, my friends, is faith.
Steven
Molin, Elated....Deflated
________________________________4. A New Shalom
When
Jesus appeared to the disciples, his greeting was, "Peace be unto
you." The Hebrew word shalom, for "peace," is a most
comprehensive word, covering the full realm of relationships in daily life and
expressing an ideal state of life. The word suggests the fullness of well-being
and harmony untouched by ill fortune. The word as a blessing is a prayer for the
best that God can give to enable a person to complete one's life with happiness
and a natural death. If the concept of shalom became all too casual and
light-hearted with no more significance than a passing greeting, Jesus came to
give it new meaning. At Bethlehem God announced that peace would come through
the gift of God's unique Son. The mission and ministry of our Lord made it
quite clear that Jesus had come to introduce the rule of God and to order peace
for the world.
Harry
N. Huxhold, Which Way To Jesus?, CSS Publishing
____________________________
5.
The Greatest Scar Story
I
can think of no better modern-day illustration of the sacrifice Jesus made for
us than a recent scar story I heard from a tennis friend of mine. As we were
waiting for another match to finish, she was relating how badly her knees hurt.
This friend is the most fit 30-something-year-old I know. Yet she sat beside me
with a brace on each knee. I pointed to the open hole of her knee brace and
asked if her scar was from knee surgery. She told me, "No, it's from my
son, and I actually have an identical scar on my other knee."
You
see, several years ago she scooped up her toddler son from the swimming pool
and began to walk towards a lounge chair. As she stepped onto the tiled patio,
her foot slipped on the wet slick surface. She was also seven months pregnant,
and it was one of those moments where you feel like you're moving in slow
motion but there's nothing you can do to stop the fall. Within a split second,
she knew her momentum was toppling her forward, and she could either face-plant
and land on top of both her son and her unborn child, or she could fall on her
knees.
Of
course, as any loving parent would do, she chose to fall on her knees directly
onto the unforgiving concrete. Her knees immediately burst open and blood went
everywhere. She ended up needing stitches, which resulted in scars, but her son
and unborn child were both unscathed. It is hard for me to tell this story
without tearing up, because to me, it serves as a miniscule example of the
immense sacrifice and love of Jesus Christ for us. You see, we are the beloved
children of God for whom Jesus took the fall. Christ suffered on the cross and
endured unimaginable pain for us. His is the greatest scar story ever told.
Christi
O. Brown, Scars of Hope
_________________________
6. Peace Be With You...It Already Is!
6. Peace Be With You...It Already Is!
Theologian
Karl Barth once remarked that to say the old line from the creed, "I
believe in the Holy Catholic Church" does not mean that we believe in the
church. It means rather to believe that God is present and at work in the
church, that "in this assembly, the work of the Holy Spirit takes place.
... We do not believe in the Church: but we do believe that in this
congregation the work of the Holy Spirit becomes an event."
Barth's
words rang true for me some years ago, when I was invited by a church in a
nearby town to be the worship leader at a special evening communion service.
The church staff had planned this service to be educational as well as
worshipful. The idea was that, first, the congregation would gather in the
sanctuary and I would give a brief talk about the meanings of the Lord's
Supper. Then, we would go into the fellowship hall and be seated around tables
for the service itself.
At
each table there would be the flour and other ingredients to form the dough for
the communion loaves. The plan called for each table to prepare a loaf and,
while the loaves baked in the ovens of the church kitchen, the people at each
table were to engage in various exercises designed to get them talking about
their experiences in the faith.
It
was a good idea, but like many well-planned events, things looked better on the
drawing board than they turned out in reality. There were problems. Children at
many tables began to play in the baking ingredients, and white clouds of flour
floated around the room coating everybody and everything. There were delays in
the kitchen, and the communion bread baked with agonizing slowness. Some of the
tables ran out of things to say; children grew weary and fussy; the room was
filled with commotion and restlessness. The planners had dreamed of an event of
excitement, innovation, peak learning, and moving worship. What happened was
noise, exhaustion, and people making the best of a difficult situation. In
other words, despite the rosy plans, it was the real church worshipping down
there in the church basement.
Finally,
the service ended, and, with no little relief, I was able to pronounce the
benediction. "The peace of Christ be with you all," I said, and just
as I did, a child's voice from somewhere in the room called out strong and
true, "It already is."
Just
that -- "It already is" -- but with those words the service was
transformed into an event of joy and holy mystery. That small voice captured
what the Gospel of John is trying to say. In the midst of a church that can
claim nothing for itself, a church of noise, confusion, weariness, and even
fear, the risen Christ comes to give peace. The peace of Christ be with you?
Because the risen Christ comes to inhabit our empty places, then, as the child
said, "It already is," and the church with nothing becomes the church
with everything.
Thomas
G. Long, Whispering The Lyrics, CSS Publishing
_________________________7. We Want Proof
There
is a reason why many Christians around the world have latched so quickly and
tenaciously onto the discovery of what may be the ossuary or burial box for
James, the brother of Jesus. There's a reason why every time archaeologists
discover some inscription referring to King David, Pontius Pilate, or some
other biblical figure that this news immediately makes a splash in the pages of
Christianity Today. Here, we are told, is further "proof" that the
stuff in the Bible really did happen! There's a reason why there is now a huge
enterprise that is literally scouring the universe for evidence that the
formation of the cosmos required the hand of a Creator God. It's not just that
we want to meet evolutionary and atheist scientists on their own turf--most
folks also quietly hanker for something tangible that can bolster the
confidence they have in their faith.
Over
and again we find ourselves wanting more.
Jesus
himself knows that faith is both a blessing and a miracle. That's why he says
in verse 29 that while it was one thing for Thomas to believe with Jesus
standing right in front of him, it would one day be quite another thing to
believe without such undeniable physical proof standing in the same room.
Scott
Hoezee, "Wanting More"
__________________________
8.
Honey...It's Me
Perhaps
you've heard the story of the Yugoslavian judge who was electrocuted when he
reached up to turn on the light while standing in the bathtub. No, I'm not
cruel or weird, let me tell you the rest of the story. This guy's poor wife
found his body sprawled on the bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead and was
placed in a preparation room under a crypt in the town cemetery for twenty-four
hours before burial.
Well,
and this is the part I love, in the middle of the night, the judge came to. The
judge looked around at his surroundings and suddenly realized where he was. He
got pretty excited and rushed over to alert the guard. But instead of being any
help, the guard was terrified and promptly ran off.
Fortunately,
though, the guard returned with a friend, and they released the newly-revived
judge. The judge's first thought was to phone his wife and reassure her that he
really wasn't dead. Unfortunately, he got no farther than, "Honey... it's
me," when his wife screamed and fainted.
So,
he decided that the best course of action was to enlist some friends. He went
to the houses of several friends; but because they all had heard the news from
his distraught wife, they all doubted that he was really alive. They were all
convinced he was a ghost.
Finally,
in a last desperate effort, he contacted a friend in another city who hadn't
heard about his death. And that person was able to convince his family and friends
that the judge really was alive.
That
story almost sounds like one of the Gospel writers could have written it,
doesn't it? It sure sounds like the passage from John this morning.
Traditional
Story
____________________
9. Watch and You'll See
9. Watch and You'll See
This
story is about three accountants who doubted their three engineer friends. They
were traveling by train to a conference. The accountants bought three tickets,
but the engineers only bought one. "How are three people going to travel
on only one ticket?" an accountant asked.
"Watch
and you'll see," said an engineer.
They
all boarded the train. The accountants took their seats, but the three
engineers crammed into a restroom and closed the door behind them. The train
departed the station and soon the conductor came through the car asking for
tickets. He knocked on the restroom door and said, "Ticket, please."
The door opened a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The
conductor took it and moved on.
The
accountants agree that this is a rather clever idea so after the conference,
they decide to duplicate the engineers' feat. They buy only one ticket, but are
astonished when the engineers buy no ticket at all! "How are you going to
travel without a ticket?" the accountants ask. Watch and you'll see, reply
the engineers.
When
they boarded the train, the accountants crammed into a restroom with their
ticket while the three engineers did the same in a nearby restroom. After the
train departed the station, one of the engineers left the restroom and walked
over to the restroom where the accountants were hiding. He knocked on the door
and said, "Ticket, please."
Author
unknown
_________________________
10.
God's Back
It
was Saturday, the day before Easter, and Joanne Hinch of Woodland Hills, California
was sitting at the kitchen table coloring eggs with her three-year-old son Dan
and her two-year-old daughter Debbie. She told her kids about the meaning of
Easter and taught them the traditional Easter morning greeting and response,
"He is risen...He is risen indeed!" The children planned to surprise
their Dad, a Presbyterian minister, with that greeting as soon as he awoke the
next morning. Easter arrived, little Dan heard his father stirring about in his
bedroom, so the boy got up quickly, dashed down the hall and shouted the good
news: "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, God's back!"
David
E. Leininger, "Laugh, Thomas, Laugh!"
__________________________
11.
Ants in The Pants of Faith
Whether
your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don't have
any doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants in
the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.
Frederick
Buechner
____________________________
12.
Just Because We Can't See It
A
junior high school teacher was telling her class about evolution and how the
way everything in the world was formed proved that God doesn't exist. She said,
"Look out the window. You can't see God, can you?" The kids shook
their heads. "Look around you in this room. You can't see God, can
you?" The kids shook their heads. "Then our logical conclusion is
that God doesn't exist, does He?" she asked at last, certain that she had
won her audience over.
But one girl from the back of the
classroom said, "Miss Smith, just because we can't see it doesn't mean it
doesn't exist. We could do brain surgery and investigate the parts of your
brain and we could do a CAT scan and see the brain patterns in your head. But
we couldn't prove that you've had a single thought today...
Who among us, myself included, can say we have never felt like Thomas? Or that at times we wonder if the whole death and resurrection accounts of Jesus Christ are merely the stuff of legend? We thirst for certainty. We can feel at times insecure about reports of the Resurrection. The Apostle Thomas heard the report of the entire Apostolic College yet he would not believe Jesus had risen from the dead unless he could touch the nail wounds and thrust his fingers into Christ’s pierced side. We ourselves are in his shoes. We are forced to rely on the reports of those who have seen the Risen Lord, and we want, desperately want, a direct experience of the Jesus who lives. It is one thing to be told about Jesus, it’s quite another to experience Him.
Saul, the Jewish Pharisee who set about persecuting the first Christians, had his own skepticism before he, on his way to Damascus to crush the followers of Christ living there, encountered the Risen Christ. Later, now as St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, he wrote to the Christian Community he had founded in Corinth and addressed those same questions.
Corinth was a seaport town in Greece, a commercial and intellectual center inhabited by very sophisticated people from all around the Mediterranean. They were no fools. St. Paul addressed them with these words taken from his First Epistle to them:
The testimony of eyewitnesses is needed in court trials. It is the evidentiary stuff of necessary proofs. That being so, I want to point out to you today that after His resurrection Jesus appeared twelve times to different groups in sizes ranging from just one person to five hundred people. After His resurrection from the dead His first appearance was to Mary Magdalene and the other women who had come with burial spices to embalm His dead body. Later He encountered two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Later to the disciples who had locked themselves behind closed doors, to seven disciples while they were fishing, and to a crowd of 500 “most of who were alive, St. Paul notes, when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians.
When St. John wrote his gospel, and we must remember that John was as a young man a disciple of Jesus, he concluded his gospel account with these words: But there are also many other things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.
So as we reflect on today’s Gospel account we need to keep in mind that the Apostle Thomas was a real man. He believed only that which he could touch. He would not allow himself to be played the fool. He was the dupe of no one. He would not settle for illusions. He is a rock, vulnerable to one… the courageous pessimist among those of this world’s philosophers who hold to the notion that life is absurd and that all we can do is endure it and then die. The only reality, they say, is violence and man’s inhumanity toward man. Happiness? Happiness is a fool's paradise… a pie in the sky promise of Polyannas. The worst will always happen. We’ve all met people who really believe that and whose hearts are help in that icy grip.
To return now to Doubting Thomas, do you remember Thomas when Christ raised Lazarus from the dead? His character was the same back then. A messenger comes to Jesus and says: “Lord, he whom you love is dead." The disciples of Jesus are concerned about Christ. They know He will want to go to Lazarus. And they know about the political dangers that exist in Judea, dangers to life emanating from powerful persons who hate Jesus. Immediately Thomas, the pessimist, the apostle of the futility of it all, pipes up and declares: “Well, let’s all go and die with Him.”
That was no confession of faith. Rather it was a declaration of despair. Thomas has courage, but only the courage to accept death… not to face life. What makes his character so clear to us, so much our contemporary brother, is the violence of his rejection. I will not believe, he asserts, unless I can see, feel, and experience those wounds in the body of the Risen Lord. His conditions are hard. In his heart what he is saying to Jesus is: "Prove to me that You love me!" That's hard evidence, a firm stone on which to lay a head filled with pessimism. Haven't we, he is saying, been exposed often enough to cruel disappointments? Haven't we often enough become vulnerable, only to be taken in? Why should we believe? After all, if we do then much will be demanded of us. Our freedom to do as we wish will be severely curtailed! Can't I enjoy life now and forget about any resurrected life?
You and I live in an age of immense suffering and death. We live among men and women who have conditioned themselves to see only one reality, namely death, misery, and terrifying treatment of others. We are conditioned to make only one statement of belief, namely that human love is unreliable and that death is ultimate. Even the causes and the hopes and dreams for which men are willing to die are incredible. We fear being open to hope. Our hopes have been dashed so often. My self is the only reality, and I will not become vulnerable to others, to hope, to love, to the chance of a new life, to belief in others and what they say about life, and about the resurrection of the Lord of life. I am a rock, we say, only that which can be seen, tasted, and touched is real. The only certainty is death. Jesus is a myth.
Yet what could be more of an illusion? What could be more foolish? Not to believe in belief is itself an unproven and unprovable belief. He who says he is free from illusions is usually the one that is most often filled with illusions, anxieties, and unreality.
Thomas suffered for his belief in Christ. So often in his life he had been disappointed! So often his prayers for a Messiah who could free him were answered in strange ways, ways which he could never have expected. So often his expectations about God were turned around by God. To suffer because there is no one in whom we can place our love, and believe in, is in itself the mark of a terribly strong desire to love and to believe! It is THE suffering of our times. It is the form that faith is taking us in our day. It is discretionary, humble, searing, and tragic. But it also very sincere, quite loyal, and it is pure. It is the faith of the new young people of our day and age who so much want to believe.
Out of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection came the most beautiful and the most convincing act of faith ever recorded in the Bible. Jesus yielded to Doubting Thomas as He yielded to no other member of the College of Apostles. He surrendered in great humility and vulnerability once again. God stoops over and lays Himself down at our side in our troubled waters and bridges the gap. He sees me and He sees you in Thomas. He loves Thomas immensely, and you and me also. He knows our disappointments, our unhappiness, our frustrations, our misery, and our fears and insecurities over being taken in by someone else. Gently He submits to the challenge of Thomas’s doubts, bitterness, and his hard challenge to faith. He comes to the side of Thomas and offers Thomas His own side.
And from out of the heart of Thomas came forth humility and a purgation that touches us 2,000 years later. All of his doubts melt away. Thomas, the hard-as-nails cynic, becomes submissive, yes even intimate, with the Risen Christ. He is lifted to a height that none of the others had attained, except perhaps St. John. Dazzled and overwhelmed Thomas exclaims: My Lord, and my God! He becomes the first of the Apostles to carry his love and belief that far. No other Apostle had ever referred to Jesus as “My God!" From this poor and pessimistic Thomas, violent in his unbelief, Jesus drew the statement of belief that He had spent His entire life preparing for! From Thomas came the fulfillment of Christmas, the expectations of Mary, and the response God wants from us. From the dregs of human suffering, despair, disappointment and disbelief comes the cry of man ravished by the love of the God who became part of all that it means to be human. From the heart of a doubting and rebellious man comes the response that a yearning God who is a Lover has always looked for. Nothing has so influenced our God as the thoughts festering in the heart of Thomas and in your heart and mine as well.
All
that remains is our surrender, our willingness to believe, our acceptance of
the Risen Lord, and our communion of love. All that remains is our surrender to
our Divine Lover and give Him the cry from our hearts: “My Lord, and my
God!" With that we can go to the sides of all who live in the darkness of
doubt and disbelief.
-----------------
Stories from Fr. Tony Kadavil's Collection:
-----------------
Stories from Fr. Tony Kadavil's Collection:
1) "Well, then, I will have mercy."
Emperor Napoleon was moved by a mother's plea for pardon for her soldier son. However, the emperor said that since it was the man’s second major offense, justice demanded death. "I do not ask for justice," implored the mother, "I plead for mercy." "But," said the emperor, "he does not deserve mercy." "Sir," cried the mother, "it would not be mercy if he deserved it, and mercy is all I ask for." The compassion and clarity of the mother's logic prompted Napoleon to respond, "Well, then, I will have mercy." The Second Sunday of the Easter season invites us to reflect on God’s infinite love and mercy for His people, as detailed in the Bible and as lived and taught by Jesus, and to practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
2) St. Faustina and the Image of the Divine Mercy:
St. Faustina of Poland is the well known apostle of Divine Mercy. On the 30th of April, 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter, at 10:00 a.m., His Holiness Pope John Paul II celebrated the Eucharist in Saint Peter’s Square and proceeded to the canonization of Blessed Sister Faustina. The new Saint invites us by the witness of her life to keep our faith and hope fixed on God the Father, rich in mercy, who saved us by the precious Blood of His Son. During her short life, the Lord Jesus assigned to St. Faustina three basic tasks: 1. to pray for souls, entrusting them to God's incomprehensible Mercy; 2. to tell the world about God's Generous Mercy; 3. to start a new movement in the Church focusing on God's Mercy. At the canonization of St. Faustina, Pope John Paul II said: “The cross, even after the Resurrection of the Son of God, speaks, and never ceases to speak, of God the Father, Who is absolutely faithful to His eternal love for man. ... Believing in this love means believing in mercy." “The Lord of Divine Mercy,” a drawing of Jesus based on the vision given to St. Faustina, shows Jesus raising his right hand in a gesture of blessing, with his left hand on his heart from which gush forth two rays, one red and one white. The picture contains the message, "Jesus, I trust in You!" (Jezu ufam Tobie). The rays streaming out have symbolic meaning: red for the blood of Jesus, which is the life of souls and white for the Baptismal water which justifies souls. The whole image is symbolic of the mercy, forgiveness and love of God.
3) Mayor’s mercy:
One night in 1935, Fiorello H. La Guardia, Mayor of New York City, showed up at a night court in the poorest ward of the city. He dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench. One case involved an elderly woman who was caught stealing bread to feed her grandchildren. La Guardia said, "I've got to punish you. Ten dollars or ten days in jail."
As he spoke, he threw $10 into his hat. He then fined everyone in the courtroom 50 cents for living in a city "where an old woman had to steal bread so that her grandchildren should not starve." The hat was passed around, and the woman left the courtroom with her fine paid and an additional $47.50.
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4) Traffic cop’s mercy:
A priest was forced, by a traffic police, to pull over for speeding. As the cop was about to write the ticket, the priest said to him, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." The cop handed the priest the ticket, and said, "Go, and sin no more."
5) Photographer’s mercy:
The story is told of a politician who, after receiving the proofs of a picture, was very angry with the photographer. He stormed back to the man's studio and screamed at him: "This picture does not do me justice!" The photographer replied, "Sir, with a face like yours, what you need is mercy, not justice!"
6) "Law v Mercy”
In Reader’s Digest, Jim Williams of Montana, writes: "I was driving too fast late one night when I saw the flashing lights of a police car in my rearview mirror. As I pulled over and rolled down my window of my station wagon, I tried to dream up an excuse for my haste. But when the patrolman reached the car, he said nothing. Instead, he merely shined his flashlight in my face, then on my seven-month-old in his car seat, then on our three other children, who were asleep, and lastly on the two dogs in the very back of the car. Returning the beam of light to my face, he then uttered the only words of the encounter. 'Son,' he said, 'you can’t afford a ticket. Slow down.' And with that , he returned to his car and drove away.” Sometimes mercy triumphs over law. So it is for sinners who call out to Jesus.”
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| Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino | ||
| 2nd Easter: Afraid and Doubting; Yet Still Believing Poor Thomas always gets bad press the Sunday after Easter. We are always focusing in on his doubts. We often think that he was the only one who did not believe that the Lord had risen from the dead. The fact is that most of the disciples doubted the Lord’s resurrection until they experienced His presence. Only the apostle John, the Beloved Disciple, appears to have believed the Lord had risen before he ever encountered the Risen Lord. If you remember, after Mary Magdeline reported what she had seen that Easter Sunday morning, Peter and John ran to the tomb. John outran Peter, but waited and let Peter go in first. When John went in, the Gospel says, “He saw, and He believed.” Peter, still, did not know what to think. Like Peter, the other disciples did not know if they should believe Mary and John. Peter reported that the tomb was empty. Perhaps in some macabre act, someone had stolen the Lord’s body. Certainly, there appeared to be no limit to the despicable activity of the chief priests and pharisees when it came to the Lord. So, they all doubted. Initially. Later that day Jesus appeared to Peter and the other disciples, except for Thomas who was not present. When Jesus appeared that day He came to the disciples in the same Upper Room where they had celebrated the Passover the Thursday before. The door was locked. Why? The disciples were afraid, frightened to be exact. Jesus had not just been killed; he had suffered one of the most horrible deaths known to mankind. Would the same thing happen to them? They were frightened. In their fear, they began doubting the Lord. Maybe He was just a wonderful, powerful prophet, but nothing more. And then He appeared to them. That’s when they realized that this was more than just a new message, a new prophecy. Jesus Himself was the message. He was the Son of God. His Gospel had power, the Power of God. Thomas was not there. He doubted the other disciples’ story. He even doubted the word of the Lord, who had said He’d rise again. When he saw Jesus, Thomas’ reaction was the same of the other disciples, best expressed in his statement, “My Lord and My God.” Jesus Christ is Lord and God. There is no need to be afraid. This is true also for us. We are often afraid. This is normal, part of our human condition. Beneath the fear there is doubt. Will God really take care of me and my family? Does He really care? Does He really exist? Where is He now that I need Him so much. We go through periods of joy and periods of stress. Sometimes we say, “Life is good. I love what I am doing. I have people I love. And I am loved by others.” Or you might say, “I have a great marriage. The children are work, but I can’t stop smiling when I think about them, even when they are driving me crazy.” Or for our younger people, “I really like school. I have friends. I have activities that are fun. Life is good.” That is how we feel sometimes. And then there are times that we seem to go from one crisis to the next. We are confronted with death, sickness, unemployment, actions of others that disappoint us, and our own actions that upset us. There is stress in relationships. And we wonder about God. “Where is He?” we ask. And, yes, like Thomas and the others, there are still times that we are afraid, that we question, that we doubt. Our Loving Lord knows and understands. He was one of us. Jesus knows what it is like to be afraid. He was afraid in the Garden of Olives. He sweat blood. But He also trusted in the Power of His Father and our Father and did not let these fears change His determination to do the will of the Father. He sees us when we are afraid. He understands. He also gives us the ability to get up from our fears and do the right thing. This is Divine Mercy Sunday. The rays that come from the heart of Jesus remind us of the blood and water that came from His heart. The blood destroys the power that evil has over us. The water revives us through baptism. He sees, He knows, He understands. Yes, it is human to be afraid. And it is human to doubt. Perhaps we feel horrible for doubting Him. His mercy and compassion are stronger than our doubts. No matter what we are facing in life today, or will face tomorrow, joy or challenge, we look to Jesus; we remember His mercy and compassion, and we join Thomas in saying, “My Lord and My God.” -------------
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