April 16th 2023. Second Sunday of Easter

GOSPEL: John 20:19-31

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Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini broadcast on Vatican Radio

 

Don Fabio’s homily follows the Gospel

GOSPEL: John 20:19-31

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nail marks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

 

1. The readings bear witness to a way of life, an inheritance that we possess that is capable of being tested.

According to the wishes of Pope John Paul II, this Sunday we celebrate the mercy of God, and we do so as a fruit of the resurrection. In the first reading, we see the way of life of those who live the new life of Easter, sharing everything they have, not as a political or social strategy, but simply out of love. They live lives centred on prayer and the breaking of bread, in other words the Eucharist. They live with joy and simplicity of heart. This way of life stunned the world and it has been passed down to us through the beautiful and marvellous lives of the faithful, diffusing itself from generation to generation. This new life is also testified to in the second reading from the letter of Peter which speaks of an inheritance that does not become corrupted, conserved for us in heaven, that no-one can steal from us, an inheritance that can be put to the test and proven for its authenticity, that gives a joy that bears us towards our goal, the fullness of life.

 

2. The apostles witnessed the effects of sin in the crucifixion of Christ. Now they witness the mercy of God in the fact that Jesus has been raised to life

In the Gospel, we hear of a life that enters through closed doors, that breaks down the defences of the apostles who have closed themselves behind barriers of fear. The Lord breaks down their fears and touches them with peace. Just as Christ was sent by the Father, so we too are now sent. We are gifted with something beautiful to do, the sacred will of the Lord, a mission. And this life that has erupted into this closed place of fear is a life of pardon, of mercy. If these disciples do not bear the mercy of God, who will? They have seen in the crucified Lord the documentation of the sin of humanity, the results of that sin, and now they see him risen. The resurrection of Christ shows us that the mercy of God goes beyond the errors of man.

 

3. Thomas meets Jesus fraternally. Christianity is always fraternal

The fact that Thomas is missing is important, because all of us too were missing that day, and Thomas shows us how to witness the risen Lord “afterwards”. How does he do that afterwards? Eight days later – the Hebrew way of expressing the passage of time of exactly one week – it is again Sunday, the central day of Christian assembly and worship, and now Thomas is present. Thomas is a twin, we are told, and a twin is a brother by definition and always. This Gospel tells us that it is with our brothers that we meet the Lord. What is Christian is fraternal, and what is not fraternal cannot be Christian.

 

4.  When Jesus says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, it is not a reproof to Thomas. All of us believe at first because of what we have experienced, but the day will come for each of us when we are called to believe even in times of darkness and doubt.

Jesus appears and invites Thomas to experience physically the wounds of Christ, marks of torture onto death. The wound in the side, in particular, is a wound that bears witness to the death of Christ as it was a wound given to those being executed to make sure that they were dead. Thomas is invited to experience this wound of a person who should no longer be alive, and is asked to no longer be incredulous but to believe. Thomas responds with the highest testimony of faith in the New Testament, “My Lord and my God”, the proclamation of the divinity and lordship of Jesus. Jesus says, “You have believed because you have seen, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed”. We sometimes take this as a reproof of Thomas, but in reality there are always these two phases to faith. First we believe because of what we have seen, but there always comes a time when we are called to believe even when we no longer see. There are the higher trials of faith when we are called to believe in times of darkness. These are the trials that Thomas and the saints are called to. He will eventually preach the Gospel as far away as India. The other apostles were all martyred for the faith. We have faith because of what we experience, and this faith becomes a practice, and one day we will be called to believe when all is in darkness, just as Abraham continued to do.

 

5. John’s Gospel presents us with these “signs” so that we will have life in Jesus’ name, not in our own name! How often we try to rely on ourselves, instead of leaning on him!

The Gospel tells us that we are told about these signs so that we will have life in his name, not in our own name. We tend to live life based on our own capacities, but we are called to live according to Christ, to believe when we cannot see, to lean completely on him. All the signs in the Gospel of John that we read during Lent – the wedding at Cana, the healing of the servant of the official, the healing of the paralytic, the multiplication of the loaves, the healing of the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus – all of these signs have a hidden interior that we are asked to contemplate so that we go beyond what we see, transcending the visible, until each one of us comes to have life in his name.