Second Sunday of Easter
On this Second Sunday of Easter, John’s Gospel speaks to us about where the disciples were after the Crucifixion of our Lord and His being placed in the tomb. It is a Gospel passage that I am sure many of us are familiar with.
The disciples are locked behind closed doors, “hiding out” because they are fearful of being found. They are confused and not sure about what’s next. Their actions are understandable in that they do not fully understand what is happening and where Jesus is. They do not fully understand the resurrection that our Lord has spoken about.
What they do know is that their Teacher, their friend, the one they followed and loved is no longer with them and that brings about sadness, uncertainty, and fear. We can imagine what the room they were locked in felt like. I believe it is a place that many of us have experienced within our own lives. That feeling of having the wind knocked out of us, not knowing what’s next, the feeling of “How are we going to get out of this situation?” The heaviness of our hearts at the loss of a loved one, or a friendship, that feeling of a promise being broken and believing in something or someone that now seems untrue. I imagine as well that they feel as if they have failed Jesus and let Him down.
Then the most amazing thing happens, Jesus comes and stands in their midst and says, “Peace be with you.” He shows them His hands and His side. They all rejoice and believe; they have encountered Jesus in their midst. Wow, and not only that, He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit”. The Lord then sends them out and it is then that they understand that they had not chosen Him, but He had chosen them. That truth is for you and me, He has chosen us! In all of our uncertainty and sin, all of our doubts and fear, He has chosen us, not only to encounter Him and experience His love in a real way, but to go and share Him with others. He calls us to “unlock our doors” and go out!
We remember that Thomas was not present when Jesus comes to the Disciples. Thomas says I will not believe until I myself can see the mark of the nails and put my hand in His side. I think we many times feel like Thomas, we won’t or cannot believe something until we see it for ourselves. In fact, Thomas’s disbelief is where we get the term “Doubting Thomas. “
Today, I challenge all of us to look at Thomas in a different way; perhaps Thomas wanted simply to be in Jesus’s presence the way the others were, to encounter Him in a real way. He wants the experience that all of the others had. Thomas was open to that encounter, and all of us must be as well. We are all called to be open to experiencing Jesus in a personal real way because it is personal, and it is real.
This Easter Season know that God calls each of us to a personal encounter with Him through Jesus every day. Let us unlock the doors of our hearts and seek Him in every moment of our lives. That is the challenge, to live in His love and to go out and live the amazing lives that He has chosen us for.
Pope Francis said: “I invite all Christians to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus, or at least an openness to letting Him encounter them. I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day.”
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