Sunday April 24, 2022

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

 

The Risen Lord Present among His People

Why do we gather every Sunday to celebrate the Eucharist of the Lord? For the same reason that the first Christians changed their day of worship from the Jewish Sabbath to the Christian Sunday. For Christ rose from the dead on Sunday, the first day of the week. It became “the Lord’s day,” the day on which they began to celebrate that Christ is risen and alive in the community of his faithful, as he is present among us now. He is real and alive among us, he is our companion on the road of life and we recognize him in the community of the Church. May the Lord Jesus give us faith to sense his presence.

                                  

First Reading: Acts 5:12-16

Through the work of the apostles, many God-signs were set up among the people, many wonderful things done. They all met regularly and in remarkable harmony on the Temple porch named after Solomon. But even though people admired them a lot, outsiders were wary about joining them. On the other hand, those who put their trust in the Master were added right and left, men and women both. They even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on stretchers and bedrolls, hoping they would be touched by Peter’s shadow when he walked by. They came from the villages surrounding Jerusalem, throngs of them, bringing the sick and bedeviled. And they all were healed.

 

Second Reading: Revelation 1:9-13,17-19

I, John, with you all the way in the trial and the Kingdom and the passion of patience in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of God’s Word, the witness of Jesus. It was Sunday and I was in the Spirit, praying. I heard a loud voice behind me, trumpet-clear and piercing: “Write what you see into a book. Send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea.” I turned and saw the voice.

I saw a gold menorah
    with seven branches,
And in the center, the Son of Man,
    in a robe and gold breastplate,
    hair a blizzard of white.

“Don’t fear: I am First, I am Last, I’m Alive. I died, but I came to life, and my life is now forever. See these keys in my hand? They open and lock Death’s doors, they open and lock Hell’s gates. Now write down everything you see: things that are, things about to be. The Seven Stars you saw in my right hand and the seven-branched gold menorah—do you want to know what’s behind them? The Seven Stars are the Angels of the seven churches; the menorah’s seven branches are the seven churches.”

 

Gospel: John 20:19-31

 Later on that day, the disciples had gathered together, but, fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.” Then he showed them his hands and side.

The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.”

Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, “We saw the Master.”

But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”

Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This time Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, “Peace to you.”

Then he focused his attention on Thomas. “Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving. Believe.”

Thomas said, “My Master! My God!”

Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”

Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.

 

Prayer
God of life and our loving Father,
our eyes have not seen your Son Jesus Christ
and our fingers have not touched the scars of his wounds,
yet we have come together here in his name.
Make our faith in him deep and strong and lasting,
that the Spirit of Jesus may breathe new life in us
and make us look with new eyes
at our world and at people,
so that we can bring them
the peace of the love and the justice of Jesus.
Let people see and taste in us
that Jesus is alive as our risen Lord,
now and for ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Doubting or Believing Thomas?

On the Sunday of the Divine Mercy, the gospel begins by saying ‘the doors were closed in the room where disciples were, for fear of the Jews.’ They were sad, disappointed and afraid after all that they had seen and gone through a few days earlier.

Jesus knows their fears, and comes in person to dispel their anxieties, fills them with his Spirit and enables them to overcome the forces of evil. The episode of the doubt of Thomas is a portrait of the mercy of God. John portrays Thomas as a symbol of difficulties in faith faced by every disciple. Perhaps Thomas had greater difficulty or took more time than others to have faith.

According to the traditions, Thomas was martyred in India in A.D. 72, about twenty years before John wrote the gospel about the year A.D. 95. Through the story of the doubt Thomas the evangelist attempts to address the doubts about the resurrection of the Lord in his community. Many of them had not seen Jesus, nor even knew any of the apostles. They found it hard to believe. They wanted to see, touch, and verify if the Lord had indeed risen.

Is it still possible for us to experience the Risen Lord? Is there evidence that he is alive? How is it that he no longer appears? These are the questions that many ask even today. This passage is a response to all such questions: John wants to tell the doubters in his community that despite living with Jesus for three years, not even all the apostles could see the Risen Lord. That’s why, the Lord himself teaches Thomas to have faith in what is not yet seen. If anyone insists on seeing, observing and touching to believe, one is renouncing the grace of faith.

The doubters will never obtain any evidence. Contrary to what we see depicted in paintings, not even Thomas had his hands on the wounds of the Lord. The Gospel does not say that he has touched the Risen One. He pronounces his profession of faith after hearing the voice of the Risen Lord, while he is with his community. And this capacity to experience the Lord is offered to Christians of every age… every Sunday.

When Jesus appeared, he did not judge Thomas for his lack of faith. He accepted Thomas and he still accepts those who have doubts. There is no need to panic, worry, or get upset when we have doubts. We all go through times when our faith is not strong as we would like it to be. Jesus accepts us as he accepted Thomas.

When we face doubts in our faith, can we look to this great disciple of faith, Thomas and make his prayer ours’ today, ‘My Lord and my God.’

 

Video available on Youtube: Doubting or Believing Thomas?