2nd Sunday Of Easter :: 2008

Second Sunday of Easter or Divine Mercy Sunday 03-30-08 Scripture Readings First Acts 2:42-47 Second 1 Peter 1:3-9 Gospel John 20:19-31 Prepared by: Fr. Lawrence J. Donohoo, O.P. 1. Subject Matter •

First reading: An ideal portrait of the post-Pentecostal Church describes its evangelical, contemplative, and communal aspects.

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Second reading: Present trials and their explication are grounded in Christ’s resurrection, which is the promise of our own.

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Gospel: The breathing of the Spirit on the apostles is linked with the disciples’ mission of representing the Father in Jesus’ name as well as with the forgiveness of sins.

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Gospel: The analogical character of believing with respect to the apostles who see the risen Christ and to ourselves who do not is highlighted by the profound disbelief and astounding faith of St. Thomas.

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Pope John Paul II declared this Sunday to be Divine Mercy Sunday, which records Jesus’ merciful to the disciples, St. Thomas, and to all Christians in his bestowing the power to forgive,

2. Exegetical Notes •

Jesus’ breathing the Holy Spirit on the disciples evokes God’s breathing on Adam in order to enliven him. See also Ez. 37:9-10 and Ws. 15:11.

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The association of the Holy Spirit with the power to forgive sins is supported by the Paraclete’s “laying bare” the goodness and evil of the world (Jn 16:7-11).

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Jesus returns to the same Upper Room where, in the Synoptic accounts, he instituted the Eucharist and said: “Do this in remembrance of me.”

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Thomas’s cry: “My Lord and my God!” is the culmination of John’s Gospel, and may be compared with the cry of the centurion in Matthew and Luke: “Truly this was the Son of God!” Thomas’s expression of belief also forms an inclusion with the opening words of the Gospel: “and the Word was God.”

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Jesus’ showing his wounded hands and side is an act of revelation that establishes the continuity of his resurrected body with his earthly one as well as the unity of the crucifixion and the resurrection.

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The description of communal life in Acts, which is placed between the evangelical proclamation of Peter’s speech at Pentecost and the merciful cure of the crippled beggar, suggests that the fruits of preaching and ministry are to be found in the experience of Christians living and praying together.

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The compliment in the First Letter of Peter, “even though you do not see him now yet believe in him,” may be fruitfully compared with the statement of Jesus to Thomas: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Both late texts of the New Testament are facing the problem of the transition to a new generation of believers who faith is mediated through the original companions of Christ.

3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church •

272 [I]n the most mysterious way God the Father has revealed his almighty power in the voluntary humiliation and Resurrection of his Son, by which he conquered evil… It is in Christ's Resurrection and exaltation that the Father has shown forth "the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe.”

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644 Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples are still doubtful, so impossible did the thing seem: they thought they were seeing a ghost. “In their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering.” Thomas will also experience the test of doubt and St. Matthew relates that during the risen Lord's last appearance in Galilee “some doubted.” Therefore the hypothesis that the Resurrection was produced by the apostles' faith (or credulity) will not hold up. On the contrary their faith in the Resurrection was born, under the action of divine grace, from their direct experience of the reality of the risen Jesus.

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647 [N]o one was an eyewitness to Christ's Resurrection and no evangelist describes it. No one can say how it came about physically. Still less was its innermost essence, his passing over to another life, perceptible to the senses. Although the Resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the apostles' encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at the very heart of the mystery of faith as something that transcends and surpasses history. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal himself to the world, but to his disciples, "to those who came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now his witnesses to the people."

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654 The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, “so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that people become Christ's brothers and sisters, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: “Go and tell my brethren.” We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection.

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655 [T]he risen Christ himself is the principle and source of our future resurrection: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. . . For as in

Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” The risen Christ lives in the hearts of his faithful while they await that fulfillment. In Christ, Christians “have tasted. . . the powers of the age to come” and their lives are swept up by Christ into the heart of divine life, so that they may “live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” •

656 Faith in the Resurrection has as its object an event which as historically attested to by the disciples, who really encountered the Risen One. At the same time, this event is mysteriously transcendent insofar as it is the entry of Christ's humanity into the glory of God.

4. Patristic Commentary •

“Place your finger here, and behold my hands:” and what else does He mean but, Touch and see? And yet he had no eyes in his finger. Whether therefore it was by looking, or also by touching, “Because thou hast seen me,” He says, “you have believed.” Although it may be affirmed that the disciple dared not so to touch, when He offered Himself for the purpose; for it is not written, And Thomas touched Him. But whether it was by gazing only, or also by touching that he saw and believed, what follows rather proclaims and commends the faith of the Gentiles: “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” (St. Augustine)

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“But how was it, that when all were collected together, Thomas alone was absent? Probably after the dispersion which had lately taken place, he had not returned even then. But when you see the unbelief of the disciple, you should consider the loving kindness of the Lord, how for the sake of a single soul He showed Himself with His wounds, and comes in order to save even the one, though he was grosser than the rest; on which account indeed he sought proof from the grossest of the senses, and would not even trust his eyes. For Thomas did not say, “Unless I see,” but, “Unless I touch,”, lest what he saw might somehow be an apparition. Yet the disciples who told him these things were at the time worthy of credit, and so was He that promised; yet, since Thomas desired more, Christ did not deprive him even of this.” (St. John Chrysostom)

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The time of our Lord's appearance was in the evening; and there were two literal reasons for this. First, he wanted to appear when they were all together; so he waited until evening, so that those who had been at various places during the day would be found together in the evening, when they gathered together. Second, our Lord appeared to strengthen and comfort them. And so he chose a time when they would be more afraid and in need of comfort and strength; this was in the evening: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps 46:1).” (St. Thomas Aquinas)

5. Examples from the Saints and Other Exemplars •

The faith of the early martyrs is incomprehensible if one forgets their unwavering belief in the resurrection of the dead.

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In his Rule, St. Benedict cites Acts for his teachings on the common possession of property and the distribution of goods according to need.

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According to the testimony of his confessor, St. Paul of the Cross, after having received the grace of transforming union, experienced 45 years of interior desolations and the most painful abandonment. Yet remained faithful to a God he could in no way spiritually see, feel, or experience.

6. Quotations •

“God has made himself visible: in Jesus we are able to see the Father (cf. Jn 14:9). Indeed, God is visible in a number of ways. In the love-story recounted by the Bible, he comes towards us, he seeks to win our hearts, all the way to the Last Supper, to the piercing of his heart on the Cross, to his appearances after the Resurrection and to the great deeds by which, through the activity of the Apostles, he guided the nascent Church along its path. Nor has the Lord been absent from subsequent Church history: he encounters us ever anew, in the men and women who reflect his presence, in his word, in the sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist. In the Church's Liturgy, in her prayer, in the living community of believers, we experience the love of God, we perceive his presence and we thus learn to recognize that presence in our daily lives.” (Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est)

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“By dying on the Cross—as Saint John tells us—Jesus “gave up his Spirit” (Jn 19:30), anticipating the gift of the Holy Spirit that he would make after his Resurrection (cf. Jn 20:22). This was to fulfill the promise of “rivers of living water” that would flow out of the hearts of believers, through the outpouring of the Spirit.” (Benedict XVI, Deus caritas est)

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“Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is a part of the person is indeed answered. Through Jesus we do know ‘the room where exiled love lays down its victory.’ He himself is this place, and he calls us to be with him and in dependence on him. He calls us to keep this place open within the world so that he, the exiled love, may reappear over and over in the world.” (Benedict XVI)

7. Other Considerations •

This Gospel text, along with two others from Matthew (16:19 and 18:18), forms the Scriptural basis for the sacrament of reconciliation.

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While it might at first glance appear strange to speak about forgiveness in the Easter season, we should recall that it is precisely the resurrected Christ’s triumph over sin and its companion, death, that we are celebrating. Our sinfulness becomes the occasion for celebrating the loving-kindness of our God. Jesus begins this celebration by offering forgiveness to the disciples, who need it for abandoning Him and for not believing in His resurrection.

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Despite first appearances, Thomas takes his faith seriously. That is why he doesn't believe. The crucifixion was too much for him. When the apostles approached him with the news of the risen Lord, he was a very disappointed man steeped in disbelief. Thomas was still present at the Calvary he missed attending. Like St. Paul, he understood that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then his faith was in vain. And since he saw his faith as vain, Jesus did not rise from the dead.

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Once Thomas is confronted with the evidence of the risen Christ--not scientific evidence, but personal evidence that cuts deep into Jesus--he believes more strongly than the others. For it is he who confesses the divinity of Christ in the strongest statement of Scripture. Just as Thomas sees that the unredeemed death of Jesus is cause for disbelief in human witnesses, so he sees that the resurrection of Jesus is cause for belief in a divine witness.

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Because Thomas disbelieves more deeply and more seriously than we do, he also believes more deeply and seriously than we. When do the belief and disbelief of Christians lead to

such radical results? The stakes for us aren't so high as they are for Thomas who, having everything to lose, had everything to gain. •

How could this fugitive from divine mercy be so daring, so bold, so gloriously foolish, so right? He saw clearly that no one else but God could have loved and grasped him in this way. No one else but God could have forgiven him so immeasurably for running away, for disbelief. When he put his hand into the Lord's side, his own heart was both broken--and repaired--with a love that could only be divine.

Recommended Resources Benedict XVI. Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI. Edited by Peter John Cameron. Yonkers: Magnificat, 2006. Benedict XVI. Deus Caritas Est (God is Love) (USCCB, 2005). Brown, Raymond A., Joseph A. Fitzmyer and Roland E. Murphy, eds. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: 1990. Moloney, Francis J. The Gospel of John. Sacra Pagina Series, vol. 4. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1998.