The Second
Sunday of Easter (A)
Divine Mercy
Sunday
Dear
brothers and sisters,
If,
as Saint John says, “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his
disciples that are not written in this book,” why does he not include some of
them in his Gospel (John 20:30)? He writes but one more chapter in which he
records the miraculous catch of fish, Jesus’ command for Saint Peter to “feed
my sheep,” and the Lord’s prediction of Peter’s death (John 21:17; cf. John 21:19). The final line of his Gospel is this: “But there are also many other
things which Jesus did; were every one of them to be written, I suppose that
the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25). Why, then, does he not mention even one more?
It
cannot be an issue of space, for in modern print his Gospel takes up but
twenty-two pages. There must, then, be a different reason, one that is not
merely a practical consideration. It is, I think, because Saint Thomas “holds
that the signs that confirm Jesus’ identity are now above all his wounds, in
which he reveals to us how much he loved us.”[1]
When the Apostles looked upon the sacred wounds of the Savior, they saw that
God “does not limit himself merely to affirming his love, but makes it visible
and tangible. Love, after all, can never be just an abstraction.”[2]
After the sight of these wounds, after the definitive proof of the Lord’s love
and of his Resurrection, what more could John say? What more did he need to write?
Seeing the marks of the nails and of the lance was enough for to “give thanks to
the Lord, for he is good” because they knew that “his love is everlasting” (Psalm 118:1).
When
the Lord extended his hands toward Thomas and said, “Put your finger here and
see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side,” he showed the
greatness of his mercy by answering Thomas’ doubts (John 20:27). Not only did
Thomas doubt the word of his fellow Apostles, he also doubted his own eyes,
which is why he said, “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”
(John 20:25). We might say that Thomas wanted to see with his hands; he wanted to
do what so many parents warn their children against. It was as if Jesus said to
him, “Through all this I have done everything to satisfy what you wanted.”[3]
We
often disparage Saint Thomas by calling him “Doubting Thomas.” We can only call
him this if we ignore what Saint Matthew tells us at the end of his Gospel,
namely, that when the Apostles saw Jesus in Galilee after his Resurrection,
“they worshipped him; but they doubted;” it was not only Thomas who doubted
(Matthew 28:17).
Have
we not all doubted at one time or another? Have we not each doubted the words
of another person and desired to ask the Lord that we might touch him? Saint
Thomas is called Didymus, a name that means twin (cf. John 11:16). Who is his
twin, if not each of us?
Suffering, evil,
injustice, death, especially when it strikes the innocent such as children who
are victims of war and terrorism, or sickness and hunger, does not all of this
put our faith to the test? Paradoxically the disbelief of Thomas is most
valuable to us in these cases because it helps to purify all false concepts of
God and leads us to discover his true face: the face of a God who, in Christ,
has taken upon himself the wounds of injured humanity. Thomas has received from
the Lord, and he has in turn transmitted to the Church, the gift of a faith put
to the test by the passion and death of Jesus and confirmed by meeting him
risen. His faith was almost dead but was born again thanks to his touching the
wounds of Christ, those wounds that the Risen One did not hide but showed, and
continues to point out to us in the trials and sufferings of every human being.[4]
Through
the questioning of Saint Thomas, we see that we do not need to be afraid of our
own doubts or our struggles to believe. The Lord does not rebuke Thomas today
and neither will he belittle us. Thomas stated clearly what he needed to
experience in order to believe; he needed to experience what the other Apostles
experienced. He did not fear to make his need known and neither should we fear
to do so because the example of Thomas shows us that “every doubt can lead to
an outcome brighter than any uncertainty.” [5] Let
us not be afraid to allow the Lord to satisfy what we want in order to believe.
In
these days of Easter, as we ponder the beautiful and glorious wounds of the
Crucified and Risen Lord, let us not be afraid to delve into their mysteries.
In the midst of our prayer, let us follow the spiritual direction of Saint
Bonaventure, who says to us:
“…with blessed
Thomas the apostle not only gaze at the wounds in [Jesus’] hands made by the
nails, not only put your finger into the holes made by the nails, not only put
your hand into the wound in his side, but totally through the opening in his
side enter the very heart of Jesus…”[6]
Saint
Marianne Cope put it perhaps more simply: “Creep down into the heart of Jesus,”
there to rest in the shelter of his love, safe from the storms of life that
stir up so many doubts and fears, there to hear him say to
us, “I have risen, and I am with you still” (cf. Psalm 139[138]:18).
Why
does the Risen and glorified Lord still bear the scars of his sufferings? It is
“not because he was incapable of healing them, but that he might bear for
eternity the triumph of his victory” and so that he might show us by what great
mercy he has redeemed us.[7] He
has kept them to show us how much we are loved.
If
you find your faith faltering, do not fear, but approach the Lord with Saint
Thomas. Explore his wounds and know that he suffered them for you, that he
keeps them for you, and that through them he wishes to give you his peace. But
first you must approach and cry out to him, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). After
pondering the glorious love displayed in his wounds, what more is there to do than
“rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your
faith, the salvation of your souls” (I Peter 1:3:9)?
[1] Pope Benedict XVI, General
Wednesday Audience, 27 September 2006.
[2] Pope Francis, Misericordiae vultus, 9.
[3] Saint Bonaventure, Commentary on the Gospel of John, 20.57.
Robert J. Karris, trans. (Saint Bonaventure, New York: Franciscan Institute Publications,
2007), 979.
[4] Pope Benedict XVI, Easter
Message Urbi et Orbi 2007.
[5] Ibid., General Wednesday Audience, 27 September 2006.
[6] Saint Bonaventure, On the Perfection of Life, 6.2.
[7] Ibid., Commentary on the
Gospel of John, 20.64.
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