Second Sunday of Easter

May 1, 2011

Reading I: Acts 2:42-47
Responsorial Psalm: 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
Reading II: 1 Peter 1:3-9
Gospel: John 20:19-31


Now is the time to simply be with the risen Lord in spirit.

Alone or in company, in silence and simplicity, we may contemplate the life that pervades the universe and enlivens the soul of every individual most intimately.

This union in stillness and joy is rightly called love - love of life, love of being, love of god.

I remember the things we have looked at in the long journey of lent with its stripping and threshing and harrowing: questing and questioning.

I would like to lie back now and dream gently of things that ought to be, that even may yet come to be.

We read of the risen Lord with his friends, and of the first communities. As the weeks go by we will enter the mysteries in the gospel according to John, the communion mysteries in their different guises.

Over and over again I ask myself, what is the essential basic core of being. If I dared I might even ask what is the essence of being "alive" in Christ the Lord?


The first reading this Sunday gives a cameo of the first communities of Christians in Jerusalem. 'They devoted themselves
to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers.'  Learning and all that learning involves, sharing and caring for one another, eating together in memory of the Lord Jesus, and praying together. Commentators say the writer did not mean this to be seen as a prototype of christian living, but all agree it does contain essential elements. Perhaps the one most neglected is the learning, the need for continued development in our understanding of Christ and his gospel. The weekly mass is thought to be enough. While the scriptures are read during mass, they are scarcely absorbed, and never examined at any depth.


The gospel tells of the necessity of doubt. Thomas is not going to abuse his own intelligence by accepting fairy tales. He needs to be convinced with proof. Jesus says, 'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!' Again commentators point out that this cannot be a call to commit blindly to  an unthinking faith - which is repugnant and a contradiction. It is meant, in the gospel, to indicate the situation of all the newly baptised who had not seen the Lord as their teachers had. Their faith rests not on seeing or touching the risen Christ, but on the testimony of those who have seen and touched him.

We are in this situation too. Whatever dissatisfaction we may have with the institution, if we believe Jesus has risen it is on the word of Peter and the others who did see and touch him when he appeared among them after he had risen from the tomb. This testimony is the essential tradition handed down over the centuries: that Jesus who was crucified has been made Christ and Lord.


We would do well to focus on this over the coming weeks, clearing away everything that is mere clutter or worse - positive distraction and the cause of much confusion. May I cite something a friend said recently: 

I am very possessive of what takes up my head space. My personal belief in God is that God is god and it does not have to be any more complicated than that . I try not to waste any time trying to understand God but I do spend a lot of time appreciating that God is God. 

Not every christian will see that as enough, but in fact everything over and above that simple truth is merely an aid, a sign, a sacrament. Jesus himself is the sacrament of god and pointed always to the one he called his Father.