Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year C

PEACE BE WITH YOU

Today we shall try to reconcile faith and doubt because Divine Mercy Sunday can help us address the doubt of Thomas.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” If you are sitting here right now, and you believe in Christ, and believe that he is the Risen Lord – then you are blessed. But that does not mean that you have not nor ever have had doubts.  This story of Thomas we read today may or may not have been true in all its details, but for sure it is a story of how the early church members had doubts. And what thinking person would not be skeptical about someone rising from the dead – even someone they had great respect for and knew intimately. If I came in and told you that Mother Theresa was back, raised from the dead and many people have seen her, what would your reaction be. Would you have such faith that Mother Theresa was a holy and unique person that this can very well be true, or would say it was wishful thinking on the part of her community and followers?  Thomas is representative of all of us who have doubts that any human could be raised from the dead.

Pentecost is familiarly described in the Acts of the Apostles. Today’s Gospel taken from John gives us another version of Pentecost. Christ, risen and triumphant, appeared to the Apostles showing them His wounds, giving them His peace, breathing upon them His Spirit and sending them on His mission to preach repentance and the forgiveness of sins.

The sentence is mouthful, but, it really describes the beginning of the Church. And, guess what is also startlingly revealing? There, right at the inception of the Church, we encounter doubt.

When we speak of doubt, we often associate it with the lack of faith. But, doubt and faith are not mutually exclusive. For example: often the unspoken statement for “I don’t believe in God” is “I believe in something else, namely, the canon of science”. In a sense, doubt might be considered a form of belief; just not a belief in God. And, in terms of faith, doubt may be a prelude to belief as in the case of Thomas, doubt was his faith searching for foundation. Fortunately or unfortunately, the foundation which we know most and are comfortable with is science. The difficulty is that faith has a reason or foundation that is far deeper than science and this explains why faith and science are often thought of as incompatible.

First, shall we accept that the greatest threat to “belief” is not science, given that one has a deeper foundation than the other? Instead, the threat to faith comes from doubt of a certain kind and this form of doubt is related to science. How is that so? Science has afforded us greater control than ever before, over ourselves through medicine or psychology , and over nature through technologies or applied sciences. This self-actualisation, as a consequence of controlling or dominating our inner and physical world, has lulled us into a false sense of invincibility. Furthermore, science gives the illusion that its propositions or claims can be proven systematically whereas the claims of religion cannot be proven and therefore must be relegated to the realm of private experience. The conclusion is, science is logical, and more dependable, whereas religion is not always so. Is it not true that much blood has been shed because of religion? And now, the Catholic priesthood is in the limelight for the wrong reason. As such, we are left with doubts that religion can adequately answer mankind’s search for meaning. In the absence of “wholeness” or “integrity”, dependable and logical science poses organised religion this challenging question: If God is good, how can He allow bad things to happen? This doubt of a certain kind comes from our experiences and there are so many bad experiences.

Perhaps, the doubt that many people have is not so much with the existence of God. Instead, their doubt resides at the level of logical contradiction. Our problem is not with God. Rather, our problem today is with what God purports to do or what God does not do. And often, the behaviour of religious people do not help.

Therefore, the Gospel is apt for the celebration of Divine Mercy as well as to confront doubt. Do you know why Christ, after He greeted the Apostles with peace, showed them His hands and His side? A clean or stylised crucifix does not tell the whole story. In fact, a sanitised cross may belong to a jaded memory. This may explain why Christ kept the marks of His wounds on His risen body. You would think that a risen body should be “perfect”. On the contrary, the wounds were necessary to help the Apostles remember or recognise Him.

Hence, if doubt is not really about the existence of God, you can say that doubt begins with forgetfulness. History tells us that the Church began to use the crucifix as a Christian symbol a few centuries later and not during the apostolic era. Maybe, just maybe, she began to turn to the crucifix because she was beginning to forget what the Lord and Saviour had done for her. When we sanitise our symbols, that is, our sacraments, and our liturgy, we begin to forget. Now, you may understand why some parents do not want to clean the room of their child who has been taken away in an untimely manner. They leave the room as it was because it helps them to remember better the departed child.

Doubt arises when we fail to remember or when we cannot remember. Is that not the case that in a relationship, after a period of inaction, we begin to ask, “Is it true”? When a relationship falls into disuse, we doubt the friendship. But, the doubt does not betray a lack of belief but is rather a symptom of a failing memory. Thus, the command by Christ that we have faithfully carried out for the last two thousand years is “Do this in memory of me”. We celebrate the Eucharist so that we can remember. In fact, as Pope Leo the Great said: What was visible in Christ has now passed into the Sacraments and in the Gospel today, there were at least 2 Sacraments—Confirmation and Confession. Every sacrament is a memory of what Christ has done for us. This is why the use of matter—the outward sign or the ritual—for the celebration of the sacrament has to be generous. That was one of the reasons why we made the Elect enter the pool to douse them amply with the waters of baptism so that they can remember better their being washed clean of sins. Likewise, in the context of the copious use of “water, oil, incense, wine” etc, you begin to appreciate why “dressing up” is important. When a person goes for a date, the place is carefully chosen, make-up applied, expensive perfume is used, the appropriate dress is selected, handbag must match the shoes. Why? It is in order that the date can be memorable. You prepare before an occasion so that you can remember long after the occasion has passed. Now you know why I take the trouble to make sure that the blessings with Holy Water cover everyone. Careful attention to our rituals is an aid to the remembrance of what God has done for us.

Our struggle is always with remembering . Sin is a result of forgetfulness. Adam’s sin was not because He ate the apple but because He forgot God’s injunction to him. The Israelites were punished in the desert not because they murmured but because they forgot God’s goodness to them. They lost faith when they forgot God.

My childhood understanding of the resurrection was that Jesus came back in exactly the same flesh as before but with the marks of crucifixion.  If we study the Gospels, this wasn’t the case.  This actually helps me, because in my skepticism, I can understand coming back in a changed form or appearing. I do believe that there is something after death, and so I have no problem believing in Jesus as this real, but also ethereal Being who could appear and disappear, do things he had done before, like eating a meal with the Apostles, and could pass through walls, go great distances in a moment, and appear to many different people. All of these things are part of the descriptions of the followers of Jesus after the Resurrection. It was a resurrected body – corporeal and not.

It certainly was true that Jesus was physically present, for the apostles who had run away frightened, now had their hope restored and their ability to convince others became heightened.  In the first reading today we have indication that the apostles too were given the power to work miracles, especially of healing, and we are told that people sought them out, even to stand in their shadows so they could be cured.

They were also inspired to write.  The follower named John was inspired to write Revelations, as we see in the second reading, when he, like St. Paul, had an experience of the risen Jesus.  Listen again to his description of it: I was caught up in the spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet. When he turned to the voice, he saw one like a son of man wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest. He touched me with his right hand, and said “Do not be afraid.” While the accounts of others may have their differences, the most common thing about Jesus’ appearances was that he didn’t quite look the same, but was in human form still, and he offered “Peace.” “Peace” seems to be the common element to all the visitations. Similarly at each mass we are reminded of this when we say the prayer “My peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”

So too, in the Gospel reading, Jesus appears in a locked room.  His first words to them were “Peace be with you.” To make sure they knew who he was in the resurrected body, he showed them his wounds, and again says “Peace be with you.” Seeing is believing for this group. And they do believe. No-one asks for more proof or has a need to touch the wounds. His resurrected body still bore signs of his suffering and passion.

Thomas was not with the group, but was obviously told the wonderful news by the others. In contrast, however, he is skeptical.  That is probably the Gospel author’s purpose here – to provide a contrast with those Apostles who had seen with those who had not seen.  Thomas was a typical Mediterranean person and would be very skeptical about anything he didn’t experience himself. Also, when this Gospel was written – the last of the four Gospels – there would have been very few, if any, of the original disciples around who had seen the Resurrected Jesus.  They were all Thomases. They all were in the position of having been told, but not having experienced it for themselves. Much like us today.  So Thomas is us.

But Thomas does, a week later, experience the Risen Christ, and to cure his doubt even is told by Jesus he can touch the wounds to see if they are real. Unfortunately, we don’t get to have our doubts relieved in the same way that Thomas did. The question I want to ask you is: if Thomas is us, how are we given the experience of the Risen Christ? Or are we just blessed people who don’t have to experience the Risen Jesus to believe and have faith.

I believe that we do see the Risen Christ in our lives in many ways. And that we are asked to experience his wounds. And that Jesus takes many forms in his risen body. He is the outcast street person in Washington DC who asks us for change. He is the person dying of cancer in great pain that we sit with and comfort.  He is the baby that smiles up at us when we talk with her. He is the grocery story cashier who calls us by name and thanks us for shopping there. If we can just stop for a minute and see that Jesus is that person, he will appear to us, and we will believe and be changed.

On Easter I reflected that our religion is an Easter religion, but this is just part of the resurrection.  Jesus’ strongest message during his life was to have us love one another.  How appropriate that Jesus can be seen then in others, if we only open our eyes to it.  Try it out for yourselves this week.  Stop your busy life and choose one person this week to see as Christ. How will that change your reaction to that person? How does that person then change you? If the kingdom can be experienced to a lesser degree here on earth now, how might that be one of the ways we can experience it?

When the reports about the resurrection of Jesus reached the disciples, they were filled with joy but later on they were filled with fear. Then a week after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to them with a bodily presence to strengthen the fear stricken disciples to continue from where he stopped. In this appearance, he did not discuss with them about the event of Good Friday, or indict them for abandoning him or for their fears and doubts. The first thing he did was to say: “Peace be with you” – a greeting which to my mind the disciples needed most. You will recall how the disciples left him alone and fled his presence on Good Friday. You can imagine how they would be filled with fear, with guilt and with shame when they saw him. If God built his kingdom on standards of tit-for-tat, Jesus would have spelt his revenge; instead he offered a word of reconciliation when he spoke of peace to the disciples who had turned away from him. With this he forgave them without asking for any apologies.

With this appearance Jesus put a stop to the doubts going on in the minds of the disciples. The later reaction of Thomas is enough evidence of the doubts that were going on in their minds. This is why Jesus said: “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself. Touch me and see: a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:38-39). It is important to note here that Thomas did not doubt to deny the truth about faith in the resurrection but only to be clarified. And the moment Jesus put him clear; he made the famous declaration of faith: “My Lord and my God”, and his doubt gave way to faith and worship.   As it were, Thomas was not satisfied with what he was told about the faith in Jesus Christ, he longed for more which Jesus gave him. Here Jesus showed the disciples that he is a real person, not a ghost. He is a real physical presence with whom the disciples and believers today can have a continuing relationship.

The message behind the Upper Room appearance is that Jesus wants the disciples to know that his Church is founded on forgiveness and has a mission to bring about peace through forgiveness. This is why he did not only forgive them but commissioned them to continue his mission of salvation and forgiveness of sin. It is not only the apostles and subsequent successors he commissioned to preach the good news of peace and forgiveness, he further said in Acts 1:8 that those to be baptized with the Holy Spirit shall be his witnesses, and in 1 Cor. 6:20 Paul says that believers in Christ are made Christ’s ambassadors to be used as instruments of reconciliation.   We can now see that while the first gift of Easter is joy, the second one is peace. Anything that comes against joy and peace in our life is not good for us. The person therefore, who fails to forgive his neighbor does not only lose his or her identity as a Christian but robs oneself of true peace. In the same vein, the one who doubts his or her faith loses true peace of mind and body.

As ambassadors Jesus wants us to represent him and become dispensers of his peace. So, the person therefore, who eats of the meal of forgiveness given to us by God and fails to forgive his or her neighbor is living in doubt and in sin. Because the Church believes we are dispensers of peace, she tells us during the celebration of Mass to offer one another the sign of peace. But it is unfortunate that many of us do not have the peace to offer and some choose and pick whom to greet or not greet.   Peace, as a matter of fact, begins from the heart and surges through the heart and then expressed in a hand shake, hugging and kissing. Any expression of peace that does not come from the heart is the product of living in doubt. Again, we live in doubt when we protest the teachings of the Church on confession before communion, abortion, war, euthanasia, artificial birth control and contraception.

Today Jesus offers us the meal of peace through this Eucharistic encounter.   It is our duty then to open our hearts to let in his peace and our minds to receive his instructions, and finally to share the peace of the resurrection with friends, relations and those who come in contact with us by the way we live, talk and relate.

Today, for Mercy Sunday, even though Christ has risen and is victorious, He comes to us with His wounded body to tell us: “Look at my hands and my side and remember that for you I have died. Doubt no longer”.

By  Rt.Rev.Kasomo Daniel The Bishop of The Society of St.Peter and Paul (SSPP)