2nd SUNDAY

of

Acts 2: 42-47
I Pet. 1: 3-9
Jn. 20: 19-31 Cycle A

23 April 2017
 INTRODUCTION:

It is now Easter Season.

We meditate on the
Resurrection stories
which are really about the
ways the Risen Jesus
interacts with his Church,
even up to now.
INTRODUCTION:

These are all our stories.

Let us learn to enter into the
dynamics of these stories. Our story today
is from John's Gospel who manages,
wherever he can, to connect his good news
to Genesis.
1 The Circumstances of the Story:
"In the evening of that
same day (Resurrection
Sunday), the first day of
the week" reminds us of
the beginning (beresith)
of human beings in
Genesis, now re-created
by Jesus' Resurrection.
1
The disciples did not
understand the
meaning of this
novelty because they
were "in fear of
death": the same fate
might happen to
them as to their
Master.
1

That the fear of death broods over them

in the Upper Room is evocative of all of
us Christians, hemmed in by our fear of
death and locked in by our ego."
1
"Jesus came and stood among them"
in spite of locked doors implies the
Risen Christ's embodied presence but
in a new level of existence beyond the
limitation of space, time, and death.
1
Benedict XVI calls the
Resurrection a "great
evolutionary leap
forward" of the Church
toward a new pitch of
perfection. Easter is the
presence of the Risen
Christ among us.
2 The Word of Life (Jesus):

"Peace be with you,"

Shalom/Peace that God
wants to give us which the
world cannot give.

Why?
2
Because Peace is passing
and evanescent, a mere
pause between conflicts.
Jesus gives peace beyond the
fear of death by which the
saints lived because their
peace comes from the
conquest of the fear of death.
2
Why this show of his wounds?

To show the reality that one

does not attain peace by going
around death or pain but by
going through death and pain.
2

Also, his wounds are

a manifestation of
the sin of the world.
2
In the words of Peter:
"God came
among us and we
killed him." His
wounds are a sign of
our dysfunctions and
that all is not ok with
us.
2

No one is ever given a

vision or an experience
of God without being
given a mission.
2
God sent his Son on a
mission of love and so
all followers of the Son
are being commissioned
to be bearers of the
Divine Life to the world.
2
This is the Universal
Call to Holiness.
You become holy in
the measure you find
your mission.
2
". . . He breathed on
them and said "Receive
the Holy Spirit."
The
Life/Love, breathed
out between the Father
and the Son, is the Holy
Spirit.
2 Every time you receive the
sacraments of the Church,
you receive the Divine Life.
2
For what Christ gives is
a share in that Divine
Life which we lost in sin.
That is why the power to
forgive sin is given to
the Church.
3 Application Story:

The Doubting Thomas

- "unless I see the
holes . . . and put my
finger into the hole...
Unless I put my hand
into his side, I refuse
to believe!
3
A repeat of the sin of Adam
and Eve here again by
Thomas! What was their
original/fundamental sin but
an act of grasping, seizing,
possessing instead of mere
receiving and accepting the gift
of Christ's presence?
3

But Thomas was

outside the Apostolic
Band when this
happened. Outside
the Church, Thomas
did not see clearly!
 A week later Thomas was
3inside the Apostolic Band, with
Jesus now he sees clearly and
gives a most impressive act of
faith in the whole Bible:
"My Lord and My
God!"
3And in the end was called
by the Lord. Why?

Because he did not have to

manipulate God to grasp in
his own hands and in his
mind but simply accepted
what in fact was there
already Jesus Alive!
CONCLUSION:

Does the story of Thomas

or any of the words of the
Risen Jesus ring a bell in
your experience?

+ART