SECOND SUNDAY OF THE EASTER - Year C

SECOND SUNDAY OF THE EASTER – YEAR C: (Acts 5:12-16; Rev 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; John 20:19-31) Theme: We Need to Recognize the Risen Jesus as “Our Lord and Our God!” Reflection: Risen Jesus appears and encourages to grow in faith of him - Eight Days are over. The Easter joy is still in our hearts. We carry with us the new life we have received from the Risen Jesus. We have been risen with Christ. We have learnt from him to rise above the material earth and to travel towards the things of the heaven. The Easter message has brought us to this day – the day of recognizing fully the Risen Jesus as our Lord and our God. - Jesus is risen from the dead. He is still on earth. He wishes to reveal the resurrected glory to his disciples. The revelation of the risen life is needed so that the disciples will come back to the knowledge and acceptance of Jesus in the fullest manner. Jesus would have gone into heaven soon after his resurrection but he does not do it immediately. He does not climb into heaven because he has something more to do. His mission is accomplished: the mission of manifestation of God’s salvation to the world through his life, death and resurrection. The accomplished mission needs to be entrusted for its continuous realization in the world until the times. This commission of the mission is not yet over. Jesus has to complete this entrustment before he ascends into heaven. For this he stays back after his resurrection. - He has already chosen the disciples prior to his passion. He has even placed himself in their hands with the Eucharistic Supper. He has given himself to their responsibility while giving them his Body and his Blood and commanding them to do it in his memory. But it was all before the great Action of the Cross and Resurrection. It was all before the disciples come into the fullest understanding of him. Now the things have been transformed. The new life is inaugurated. The doors of the heaven are opened to the fallen man. The eternal glory is manifested in the resurrection of Jesus. The possibility of salvation of the world is made available. Every man is enabled to access to the offer of God’s redemption. All this has taken place not just in the death of the Lord but in the resurrection of the Lord from the dead. It is because of this death is necessary to enter into the glory of resurrected life. Jesus has manifested this truth and unveiled its necessity by his own personal entrance into the experience of death and new life. - This is the mystery of salvation that God realized in Jesus Christ. In turn, Jesus wills that this mystery is extended to the entire world through the continuation of the same mission he has accomplished. For this he needs to entrust the mission to his disciples. Prior to the entrusting of the mission, he needs to call back all the dispersed disciples. With the arrest of Jesus, almost all of his followers have run away from him expect few who have followed him secretly and finally just one remained until the cross and has been entrusted with his mother. They have abandoned Jesus. They have left Jesus alone. More than anything, they have not placed their trust in him by following until the end. They have run for their life with the distrust and unfaithfulness to Jesus. But Jesus knows that they have acted this way only because of their ignorance and incomprehension of the true mission that he has to fulfill. Now is the time. Jesus is risen. He has to bring back those of his hidden disciples. He has to fill in them the courage. He has to put in them an heart of comprehension of the true life and a commitment to it. He has to do it personally. It is for his Jesus did not go to his Father immediately after his resurrection. He remains for few more days to show himself to his disciples. He stays back in order to meet them in their places and to lead them to the true place of Calvary and of the Garden of Life. - The risen Jesus sets out to seek them. The gospel reading of today appears in this context. It is not only the episode of the recognition of Jesus on the part of Thomas but it is the episode of all the disciples who have found again the great Joy of seeing the Lord, dead and risen. They know truly that he is put to death. Now they know certainly that he is alive again and is with them. This is the true faith and authentic testimony of the disciples. Once we enter deeply into the gospel passage we understand that the faith of the disciples empower us to recognize Jesus as Our Lord and Our God. Readings: Faith overwhelms with the Joy of Recognition: “My Lord and My God!” - Risen Jesus Acts and Speaks: The profound entrance into the gospel leave a space for the deeper meaning of the appearance of the risen Jesus to his disciples. Jesus goes out to visit his disciples where they are. On the same day of his resurrection Jesus offers his risen presence to them. The gestures and the words of Jesus have an immense effect on the life of the disciples. We will reflect upon the attitude of Jesus in his action and in his words. o The evening of that day, the first day of the week (v.19): what is “that day”? It is the day of the resurrection. The evening of the same day of his coming back to life, Jesus walks towards his followers. Why the evening? May be in the human logic, evening indicates the hour of darkness, hour of desperation and hour of discouragement. But in the Christian logic, biblical understanding, “the evening” has a special significance. It is an hour of recompense for the work done: it is in the evening that the workers are paid their wages (Math 20:8). It is an hour of healing: it is in the evening that Jesus has cured many sick people (Mark 1:32). It is an hour of nutrition: it is in the evening that Jesus has multiplied the five loaves of bread and two fish and fed them (Math 14:15). It is an hour of interaction with Jesus: it is in the evening that the risen Jesus meets the discouraged disciples of Emmaus and gives them the gift of his sight (Luke 24:29ff). And now again, it is in the evening that Jesus comes to reveal his risen life to his disciples. Thus, evening is an hour of visitation of the Lord. o Jesus enters even if the doors are closed (v.19): The doors are closed. Indeed, the hearts of the disciples are closed with the fear of giving their life for the Lord. But their closing of the doors of their house or their hearts is not an impediment for the Jesus’ entrance. Jesus can still enter and Jesus enters. Often, our life is closed to the arrival of Jesus. Our conscience is closed to the voice of the Lord. However, Jesus speaks and enters. It is his wish to enter and be with us. o He stands amidst them (v.19): Jesus is the centre of our life. He has come into world only for this: to be with us (Emmanuel) and to pitch his tent among us (John 1:14). Jesus participates in our conditions and situations and takes them upon himself as the centre. o “Peace be with you!” (v.19): This seems to be the first word of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection. The disciples indeed need peace. They were frightened. They were hidden. They closed themselves. They lost peace and they lost life itself. Jesus knows their condition and that is the reason why he utters his first words: peace be with you! In the same passage the phrase appears three times. It shows how much they are in need of peace of mind and heart. He does not pacify them just with the words but he gives them a proof of his resurrection: the wounded body. o He shows them his hands and his side (v.20): Jesus carries the wounds of the cross in his body even after his resurrection and even after taking the new life. It has a great significance. The suffering, the passion, the death and therefore, the cross, is an element we need to carry always. It is the treasure of our Christian life and it is the richness of salvation. For this, we, the Christians need not fear of bearing within us the wounds. It is only after the cross that there is a resurrection. It is only after the death that there is life. o Disciples experienced a great Joy in seeing the Lord (v.20): The fear has disappeared. They remained wonderstruck. Their joy was immense. Although, they have heard Jesus speaking of his rising on the third day, they truly did not understand those words. Now they have personally seen the Lord. Their joy is doubled when they confirmed him to be Jesus by looking at the signs of the nails in his hands. o He breaths his Spirit and entrusts the mission (vv. 21-23): Breathing the spirit means giving the life. It happened in the beginning of the creation when God breathed into the nostrils of the first man his spirit and made him live. It happens now in the beginning of the new creation when Jesus breathes his spirit to his first testimonies and makes them live. It is the Spirit of the Risen Jesus that the disciples receive. They do not fear anymore to share in his mission – mission of giving their life for the Lord and for the world. - Faith means Recognizing the Lord (vv. 26-29): The first visit of the risen Jesus takes place when Thomas is not present. He is not there. He has gone out. He has missed the possibility of seeing the Jesus. He returns to the place. The disciples express their great joy: “we have seen the Lord.” He does not will to listen to them and believe them. He has his own mode of confirming the reality. He wants to have a personal experience. He wants to touch Jesus. He wants to put his fingers in the wounds that the nails have made and put his hand in his side. Only then he is ready to believe. Until then he places himself outside of the true joy of risen Jesus. Jesus does not want to lose even single one of his disciples. He comes to meet them again after eight days. The doors are still closed. Jesus enters and utters the words of peace. Immediately he calls Thomas: “Come my dear Thomas. You want to do something. You want to test and attest. Come! Look at the wounds in my hands. Put your hand here in the side is pierced.” Thomas realizes the amount of his distrust in him. He recognizes and exclaims with the faith: “My Lord and My God!” (v.28). This the true recognition that emerges from the true faith. The other disciples have only experienced great joy but not a great faith and that’s why they are still in the closed doors and they are still incapable of coming out to testify him. On the other hand, Thomas is different. He did not believe in the beginning because he wanted personal experience. Once he has got that experience his faith is firm, not only in the overwhelming joy but also in the recognition of the risen Jesus as His Lord and his God. Once the recognition of the Lord takes place, the doors have to be open and the barriers between Jesus and us have to be broken. That is the true Easter we can celebrate and live. Conclusion: Let Us Open Our Doors – to the Lord and to our neighbors - Open the Heart to the Lord: The Faith of Thomas is given as a model for us in the Gospel of today. We miss the possibility of meeting Jesus. But Jesus does not miss us. He does not want to lose us. Though we close our hearts Jesus is capable enough to enter and affect our life. Closed doors do not matter to him. They cannot in anyway block his coming. We need to recognize the Lord who stands by us and amidst us. His presence is to be accepted. Thomas recognizes and accepts Jesus as his Lord and God. Immediately he opens his heart to the Lord not only to acclaim him as his Lord and God but also to go out and proclaim it with the testimony of his life. The faith does not remain personal always but it reaches to the other to affect him in the spiritual life. We need to learn such an attitude of recognizing Jesus. We need to break the sealed tombs of our life. We need to break the chained jails of our closed life style. It is faith that makes us open our hearts to the Lord. Do we have such faith in the Risen Jesus? If we say “yes”, we need to break open our heart to the Lord. As a consequence, we open also the door of our house to those who knock them. - Open the House to the Neighbor: We receive the Joy of Life in this Easter celebrations. What we receive is not certainly for ourselves only. It is for sharing with others. We receive the life to extend it to our neighbors. Christian life is to be elevated with the confidence in the other. The trust in the other is what is lacking in the present world. We live as though we do not have any neighbor at all. We are not interested in the other and often we become indifferent to the needs of the others. It is not certainly a Christian attitude. Christ is never for himself: his entire life is for the Father and for the world. So also our Christian life: to be for the Lord in whom we believe and to be for the neighbor with whom we live. Therefore, we need to keep the door of our life open to those who wish to enter. Our true recognition of the Lord makes us move to the other with the doors of our hearts open. This is the true Easter testimony that the risen Jesus expects from us.