2nd Sunday of Easter 2023

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter. Mine was wonderful. After a Holy Week full of beautiful celebrations, Easter was very gratifying. There was a capacity crowd for the 10AM Mass, with people standing on the sides and at the back door. I think it was the biggest crowd we’d had since before the pandemic. The weather was beautiful too, and I got together with some of my family later in the day. I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter too.

Easter is a joyful day for Christians as we celebrate new life and resurrection with the coming of Spring all around us, but for Jesus’ apostles, the first Easter wasn’t such a wonderful day. It was a very confusing and frightening one. Just three days before, they experienced what must have felt like the end of the world. On Good Friday, Jesus’ death on the cross was a crushing defeat. The Apostles followed Jesus for three years and witnessed His glory. They saw Him perform miracles and healings, listened to His preaching, and witnessed His compassion and mercy. They felt sure that Jesus was the Messiah, the long-awaited one foretold by the prophets. They believed God sent Jesus as the one who would change everything for them.

Just a week before, along with Jesus, they entered Jerusalem and were greeted by crowds who honored Jesus and proclaimed Him the Messiah. They believed Jesus was about to bring tremendous change to their lives and would help overthrow Roman domination and bring freedom and power to God’s people. Then one of Jesus’ apostles betrayed Him, led the authorities to arrest Him, put Him on trial, and turned Him over to the Roman governor for crucifixion. The Romans executed Jesus, and the disciples’ world came crashing down around them. They felt fear and frustration, doubt and disappointment, and their grief immobilized them.

Last week we heard how Mary Magdeline, in her grief, went to Jesus’ tomb on the first Easter to mourn even when it was still dark. When she arrived, she discovered the tomb was empty, and she ran to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple, whom we believe was John. The two of them ran to the grave and found it empty, just as Mary had told them. John saw the burial clothes and the empty tomb and believed in Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. John didn’t receive any special private revelation to cause him to believe. He believed because he had paid attention to Jesus’ preaching and his signs. The Beloved Disciple could believe because he had positioned himself to be open to faith.

Faith is a gift offered to all of us, but we must be open to receiving it. We have to have positioned ourselves to be receptive to faith. Faith isn’t infused into us from up in the sky someplace. It comes to us if we set ourselves where we can be receptive to receiving it. Faith is the belief that God exists, wants us to be happy, and does everything to help us be happy. We can still grow in faith even when God feels distant. Hope comes if we have faith. Hope is the expectation that something good will come to us because we recall God’s goodness in the past.

Faith and hope came easily to John but not to everyone. For some, it takes longer because we are skeptical and maybe a little pessimistic. It is in our nature. That was the situation for Thomas, one of the main characters of today’s Gospel.

Today we hear that despite closed and locked doors, Jesus miraculously appeared to the disciples in the Upper Room on the evening of the first Easter. Jesus pointed out to the disciples the wounds he suffered during His crucifixion because He wanted to show them he had died and was now resurrected. While with them, Jesus breathes on them to give them the Holy Spirit and the power to forgive sins.

All of the Apostles and disciples except Thomas saw the resurrected Jesus that evening. John’s Gospel tells us Thomas wasn’t present, and it seems he might have gone off on his own to grieve and try to make sense of the loss he felt at Jesus’ death. For some reason, maybe fear of being arrested by the religious authorities if found with the other disciples or his feelings of upset over Jesus’ death, Thomas isolated himself from the rest of the community of followers of Jesus.

By isolating himself, Thomas missed out on Jesus’ appearance in the Upper Room and put himself out of position to be able to believe Jesus was alive. Evidently, the other Apostles sought out Thomas because they felt excited by Jesus appearing to them. They thought they had to find Thomas and share their exciting news.

When they found him, Thomas was skeptical and doubts the truth of their story. He doesn’t say he will never believe Jesus is resurrected, but he sets the bar pretty high. He claims he won’t believe it unless he can examine the nail holes in Jesus’ hands and put his hand into the wound on his side. The other disciples rebuild Thomas’ hope despite Thomas’ disappointment and despair. To his credit, Thomas rejoins the disciples after hearing their story. On the word of the disciples, he returns to the Upper Room so he can be in a position to witness that Jesus is alive should He come back again.

Thomas is there when Jesus comes a week later. Jesus doesn’t scold Thomas for being doubtful but invites Thomas to come to believe. Jesus offers Thomas a chance to examine His wounded hands and side, but Thomas doesn’t need to do that to come to faith in the resurrection because now he is in a position to believe. His doubts give way to certainty by just seeing Jesus alive.

You might be in the same place Thomas was after Jesus’ death. Maybe someone you loved died even though you diligently prayed for them to overcome their illness. You have suffered another type of loss that has caused your soul to ache or feel very disappointed about your situation in life, and you doubt God’s goodness. You think a sinister God is manipulating you like a puppet.

Jesus does appear to the disciples a week later. Thomas has rejoined the other Apostles and is now better positioned to believe Jesus is alive. Jesus doesn’t scold Thomas for his lack of belief when he comes but invites him to examine his wounds so he can come to faith. John doesn’t say if Thomas ever actually touches Jesus’ wounds. He doesn’t have to, and Thomas can proclaim Jesus, Lord, and God. Thomas could come to faith because he rejoined the community of disciples. When he rejoined them, he put himself in a position for Jesus to come to him and strengthen Thomas’ faith.

I had a hopeful experience on Easter. I saw a woman I hadn’t seen in quite a while at some Holy Week celebrations and Easter Mass. She used to be a daily Mass communicant and a regular at Sunday Mass. I heard her grandson, just a little boy was seriously ill, and I presume she was praying for his recovery. He died, and I didn’t see her at church anymore. I’m hoping she has been able to reposition herself; maybe with the help of faithful friends and family, she has re-established her sense of hope in God. 

At the end of today’s reading, John says he wrote his Gospel so people who never could witness the resurrected Jesus might be brought to believe and have life in Jesus’ name. John wants people to read his Gospel and then position themselves to grow in faith.

We must position ourselves to grow our faith in Jesus by praying daily. So set aside a few minutes daily to be in God’s presence and pray. Find a convenient place and time to start praying for as few as ten or fifteen minutes a day. Start reading the Bible. Read just a few verses and stop to ask yourself what God might be trying to help you learn about your relationship with God from what you read. Maybe subscribe to a daily reflection magazine like The Word Among Us or an online email. You can position yourself to grow in faith if you celebrate the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, every weekend. Go to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation when you know you have sinned. Live out your Baptismal promises that we renewed last weekend.

This week I’d like you to think of the places in your life where you have suffered disappointments and loss. Where have you almost given into doubt and despair? Make a list of those disappointments. They might not seem all that consequential to others, but they were important and serious for you. They hurt your heart, and you still feel that pain. Ask God to help you to heal that pain; so, as the author of 1 Peter said, you can come to appreciate them as purifying and enlightening opportunities God has offered you to grow in your relationship with God the Father.