The Second of Easter (2024)
Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
—John 20:29
In the silent hours and days that followed that first Good Friday, the Apostles were left adrift. After all, the One who had been their focus and point of reference through years of mission and service was gone.
Why had God gone silent?
How could they make sense of everything that had happened to Jesus? Of everything that had happened to them?
Although we are quick to jump to the end of their story, but we have to remember that it took time for the disappointment and disillusionment of Good Friday darkness to be dispelled by the light of Easter.
But the dawn did come… for some of Jesus’ friends and followers, at least.
The Gospel of John tells us that Thomas had been absent when Jesus appeared to the Apostles on that first Easter Sunday. Should it be any wonder, then, that Thomas would still be overwhelmed by Holy Saturday sadness? And is it really fair to fault Thomas for being skeptical about the stories of Mary Magdalene and others seeing Jesus? Reflecting on these questions, Pope Francis has remarked,
“Doesn’t the same thing also happen to us when something completely new occurs in our everyday life? We stop short, we don’t understand, we don’t know what to do. Newness often makes us fearful, including the newness which God brings us, the newness which God asks of us.”
-Homily for the Easter Vigil 2013
Although Thomas did not initially believe in the resurrection of the Lord, he nevertheless remained faithful to the call he had received from Jesus—the call to be a part of the community Jesus had called together. While his doubts would not allow him to believe that the others had seen the Lord, Thomas never lost faith in their fraternity and it was ultimately in and through that community that Thomas encountered the Risen Christ.
St. Thomas by El Greco
In The Genesee Diary, Henri Nouwen recalled that Dydimus, the name of Thomas, means “twin” and that the Fathers of the Church had commented that all of us are “two people: a doubting one and a believing one. We need the support and love of our brothers and sisters to prevent our doubting person from becoming dominant and destroying our capacity for belief.” And so, we might say that on this Second Sunday of Easter, the Church is inviting us to reflect not so much on “Doubting Thomas” as on the living and dynamic faith of the community—the Church—of which Thomas was a part.
Like Thomas, we also experience the Resurrection within and through the faith of the Church as we meet Christ in Word and Sacrament. And it is within the communion of the Church that we discover compassion and divine mercy. As Pope Francis has also reminded us,
“The Risen Jesus passed on to his Church, as her first task, his own mission of bringing to all the concrete message of forgiveness. This is the first task: to announce forgiveness. This visible sign of his mercy brings with it peace of heart and joy of the renewed encounter with the Lord.”
-Regina Caeli, April 23, 2017
Faith is a gift, believing is not automatic or easy.
In fact, it is often easier for us to relate to the doubt of Thomas than to the sublime prayer and contemplation of the great pray-ers and mystics of the Church. Acts of terror, the threat of war, violence within our communities and families, discrimination, illness, and enduring hunger put our faith to the test. And yet, Easter reminds us that there is something more powerful suffering and death: the love of the God who, in Christ, has taken upon himself our broken humanity. In the end, this is the mystery we celebrate on this Second Sunday of Easter and the Feast of Divine Mercy.
At the conclusion this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed” (20:19).
Blessed are we when we accept what has been handed down to us in the authentic traditions and teachings of the Church.
Blessed are we when are willing to welcome Jesus who is embodied in the texts that speak of him.
Blessed are we when we accept Jesus who is embodied in the sacraments.
Blessed are we who recognize Jesus embodied in the lives of the saints.
Blessed are we when we reach out to Jesus who is embodied in the little ones of the earth.
God of everlasting mercy,
who in the very recurrence of the paschal feast
kindle the faith of the people you have made your own,
increase, we pray, the grace you have bestowed,
that all may grasp and rightly understand
in what font they have been washed,
by whose Spirit they have been reborn,
by whose Blood they have been redeemed.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter
