2010/4/10 Luigi Lo Stocco
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GOOD Sunday
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BELIEVE BEYOND THE DARKNESS AND DOUBTS
second SUNDAY of Easter, April 11, 2010
Gospel of Jesus Christ according to John John 20: 19-31
was after Jesus' death on the evening of the first day of the week. The disciples had locked the doors of the place where they were because they were afraid of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He told them: "Peace be with You! "
said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Jesus said again, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I send you. "Having thus spoken, he sprinkled them on his breath and said to them:" Receive the Holy Spirit. Every man you forgive his sins, they are forgiven; every man who sins you retain they are retained. "
However, one of the Twelve, Thomas (whose name means twin) was not with them when Jesus came. The disciples said: "We have seen the Lord! But he declared: "If I do not see in his hands the nails, if I can put my finger on the place of the nails, I do not hand in his side, no, I will not believe! "
Eight days later the disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst. He said: "Peace be with you! Then he said to Thomas: "Put your finger here and see my hands, out your hand and put it in my side to be unbelieving, but believing. "
Thomas then said: "My Lord and my God! "Jesus said
" Because thou hast seen me, you think. Blessed are those who believe without seeing. "
There are many other signs Jesus did in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these have been that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
The Sunday after Easter is the Sunday of Thomas. It's eight days after Easter that Jesus resurrected appears to Thomas. The doors were locked even though Peter and John saw the empty tomb, even if the apostles had received the testimony of Mary Magdalene and the disciples of Emmaus. The disciples were afraid, they were holed up. They were not ready to understand, because they lacked faith, and they opposed much resistance to the gift of God. They will take some time and especially wait for Pentecost at last delivered from this fear and enter fully into the joy of Easter and understand the mystery of the empty tomb.
Thomas has a very normal reaction. And so it is the image of all others, and the mentality today. He is someone who can not believe that Jesus actually crossed the dead, that is actually entered in death and truly out of death, that Jesus was not resurrected a hallucination, a vision.
Present Thomas as the skeptic in the middle of a group of apostles believers is a simplification or an injustice with respect to this disciple who was very zealous in the gospel. All the apostles doubted. They made fun of women who first, brought the message of the resurrection. They did not believe further two disciples returning from Emmaus.
Thomas is here rather the character that embodies all the apostles at the stage of their distress
. Thomas is the image of all of us to stage our dismay.
This is not the cold doubt, skepticism, it is difficult to believe in the humaneimpossible.
John wrote his gospel to bring the reader to faith in Jesus and allow him to gain eternal life. Believing without seeing anything, it's not so obvious as that. While John's gospel emphasizes the need to see to access faith. We see Jesus, we see his actions, we see the signs he did, and from there, we believe that Jesus is God. In his first letter, the same John begins by talking about "what our eyes saw," what our hands have touched the Word life. "
" Because thou hast seen me, you think. Blessed are those who believe without seeing. "
Thomas expresses our confusion and our pain when we walk in the darkness of doubt. Spiritual truth is far beyond the indexes. It is not the obvious. It is always more or less, faith and the unseen. The truth of love is the faith in love. We can not love if we do not believe in love.
Thomas is So now more than just finding. It is an act of faith. There is not content to marvel that a resurrection would simply revealed the power of God. He who comes to him who gives himself to the touch, it is God himself, but totally different from what had hitherto imagined it to be God. Love is a God pierced with our nails and our spears.
We must learn to see beyond the darkness. Not easy, but possible if our faith is rooted and it goes beyond the people, situations and scandals. We emphasize especially the negative that exists in our lives, in our society and our churches, and thus erase the great and huge positive is happening. But good does not make noise. And it is good that we build.
Often we want to believe, but under certain conditions. Provided that this faith is proven and guaranteed. We want to believe without intermediary, we want to pass the faith of others, but we err when we think we can do without the faith of others.
We are under the absence of non-see.
What else does it only if the testimony.
It is faith in the risen Jesus who delivers us from fear and the paralysis it causes.
It is faith in the risen Jesus makes us take the path of life of accomplishment and hope.
Walking on the path of a living faith, despite all the difficulties of the road where the light is often veiled, despite the weaknesses of humanity, despite the imperfections of institutions.
Pray:
With Thomas we pray that this Sunday, while putting us on his knees before the living Christ of the Most Blessed Sacrament: "My Lord, my God "
© kakaluigi, April 2010
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