Tag: thomas

Second Sunday of Easter | Sunday of Divine Mercy

From the Gospel acclamation: “You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord; Blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe!”

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 20:19-31)

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.”

As the disciples are behind locked doors, afraid to come out and face persecution, Jesus appears to them. His first words are “Peace be with you.” Immediately afterward, he tells them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” In his appearance to them and in “many other signs done in the presence of the disciples,” Jesus gives them the strength and courage necessary to proclaim the good news of his resurrection. Why was all of this done in this way? It is God’s mercy that all would know that “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”

God, help me take the example of Thomas in exchanging lack of faith with faith professed: “My Lord and my God!” I find myself to be one behind locked doors, yet you come to me in the Eucharist. “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed,” Jesus says. Give me the grace to depend not on material signs to shore up my faith but on believing without seeing. From the sequence from today’s reading: “Yes, Christ my hope is arisen; to Galilee he goes before you.” Christ indeed from death is risen, our new life obtaining. Have mercy, victor King, ever reigning! Amen. Alleluia.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

USCCB Readings

“ ‘Gather the fragments left over, so that nothing will be wasted.’ So they collected them, and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments from the five barley loaves that had been more than they could eat.”

Jesus asks Philip where they could buy enough food for the crowd that followed Jesus up the mountain. He does this to test Philip, who gives Jesus a matter-of-fact reply: “Two hundred days’ wages worth of food would not be enough for each of them to have a little.” But it is Andrew, Peter’s brother, who suggests something that Jesus follows up on: a boy in the crowd has five barley loaves and two fish. “Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted.” How many times throughout the Gospel Jesus does this! He takes the little given to him, blesses it, and returns it to us in superabundance.

This miracle, which takes place near the time of Passover, is a kind of Last Supper before the Last Supper. Because of that, in it is a prefiguring of the Mass and the Eucharist, a sharing in life-sustaining food that fully satisfies, a dwelling in the house of the Lord. God, help me understand what it means to seek you as the crowd that followed you were hungry for food but also for so much more. Help me know what it means to be satisfied, as today’s Psalm says, to gaze on your loveliness and contemplate your temple.

To contemplate the Lord, to dwell in his house, I can imagine the risen Jesus asking Thomas to put his hand into his side, putting his finger into the nailmarks. That also, as grotesque as it seems, is to gaze on the loveliness of the Lord and to share in the Paschal meal; it is to take the broken bread and have more than I could eat.

Today when I am caught up in the flow of the day and the tasks I am given, I want to remember it’s not about measuring how much productive labor will yield but instead a trusting in the little given to God to accomplish his work, not mine. I want to remember to be like the boy who gave what he had and found through God’s work more superabundant grace than I could possibly imagine.

April 24, 2022—Divine Mercy Sunday—2nd Sunday of Easter

USCCB Readings

“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.’ ”

This reminds me of the expression “Put my finger on it.” It is proof Thomas seeks (“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”) By saying “Put your finger here and see my hands, . . .” Jesus establishes facts to bring Thomas’s unbelieving into belief.

God, help me understand how the isolation of the disciples behind locked doors did not prevent Jesus from standing in their midst. Help me understand how to overcome the times that I doubt Jesus, when no amount of proof is enough. Thomas, though, does come to believe. He was not with the disciples when Jesus first appeared but sees Jesus when he appears a second time behind locked doors. Having seen the proof, Thomas comes to believe in the Risen Christ, exclaiming, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?” Jesus give Thomas proof; it is proof Thomas wants. The Gospel reading says that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples. Why? The evangelist Saint John says, “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.” Jesus, together with the first who believed in him want, for those who come to follow him, what Jesus had to die to produce: forgiveness of sins, the Resurrection of the Body, and life everlasting.

Today, Divine Mercy Sunday, I want to bring my unbelief to Jesus through my actions throughout the day, through prayer, and in receiving the Eucharist. I will forget myself and fall into unbelief, I will fall short, and I will fail to show mercy. No matter. When I return, Jesus is there, and his grace is enough to transform my unbelief: “Blessed are those who have not seen and believed.”