Today the Catholic World celebrates the second Sunday of Easter. On this Sunday also we celebrate the Divine Mercy of God. It is most fitting also that today Pope John Paul ll, who was, himself devoted to the Divine Mercy was beatified in the Eternal city of Rome. The Gospel reading at Mass today was taken from John 20:24-29. Here we read “Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.” Why did Thomas miss the apparition of Jesus? And here is the point; he missed that first appearance, the first blessing and the first offer of peace from Christ himself.
Whenever we miss the community of God’s people, the place that we should be, we miss out on a lot of things. We miss out on the blessing. We miss out on the information offered and many emotions and reactions of the time. What we are left with is nothing but the leftover that at times makes it very difficult to believe. And when this type of information is being passed around, there are certain additions and subtractions in the info. We tend to spice up the info also to our advantage. This, truly, was the lot of Thomas our patron saint when we fail to show up. The community of God’s people needs all of us, with our talents, our gifts, our weaknesses and our strength, it needs us all to stand out and show up so that the body of Christ the Church may be complete. Let no one say ‘I am not worthy’, let no one say ‘I have nothing to offer’, let no one say my contribution will not count, and certainly let no one say ‘I will not be missed’. God needs us all. The body of Christ will not be complete without one of his members.
The Thomas in us is nothing but a drag; it makes us give reasons why we should not be there. It makes us rationalize on important issues and causes us to make fun of sacred things. When we think of Thomas the absentee, let us remember the redeemed Thomas, the one who put his hand in the side of Jesus and was awed by the risen Lord and he worshipped him with “My Lord and my God.” Let us open our hearts to the converted Thomas and adore our risen Lord.
Amen. Thank you for this wonderful writing. Alleluia to the risen Lord!
ReplyDeleteLet not forget the THOMASs' in our own community. Those who have given into the doubt and dispare. If we are to truly be the FACE of Chirst then we must first be the presence of Chirst. Thomas touch Chirst and believed, so to we must touch those who have lost their faith, hope, and belief that God can make a difference.
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