We continue to celebrate the Easter miracle for six weeks. Jesus Christ lives, and because he lives, we live. We have become new creatures by virtue of the life giving waters of baptism. We shall become like God and see God face-to-face.
A skepticism found too often these days reminds me of a newspaper cartoon. One character proclaims "He is risen!" Another replies "Fake news."
Put differently, the French philosopher Blaise Pascal described faith as a calculated risk:
Not believing in God is bad for one’s eternal soul if God does exist.
Believing in God is of no consequence if God does not exist.
Therefore, it is in one’s interest to believe in God.
So, the gift of faith is a good bet as we contemplate the word of God, wherein people are seeing faith in new ways and putting it in practice.
The word of God carries us back to the beginnings of Christianity, to a community faithful to Jesus Christ – the way, the truth and the life. These early Christians worshiped God and generously shared what they had, in Jerusalem, and beyond. They should inspire us to do the same.
The letter attributed to Peter speaks of our new birth in the life-giving waters of baptism: God's gift of an imperishable heavenly inheritance. The gift of faith empowers us to overcome hardships and attain life eternal with the triune God. The author may be asking: are we living in accord with that ultimate purpose.
In the Gospel, we have a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus in a house where the apostles hide behind locked doors. Jesus suddenly appears not merely as a spirit or ghost; nor was he simply resuscitated. Jesus was the same person they knew but his earthly body was transformed. It was, as Pope Benedict XVI described, an evolutionary leap into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.
The risen Jesus then bestows upon the disciples the energizing Spirit, the abiding peace, and the overwhelming mercy of God. We all cry for reconciliation, healing and mercy, which we celebrate today— Divine Mercy Sunday.
Skeptical Thomas wasn’t there. But lo and behold, a week later Jesus appears again, Thomas sees the light and makes that awesome declaration of faith: “My Lord and my God.”
We know little about him, yet “doubting Thomas” is easily relatable because to be human is to question, to seek evidence.
Christianity proposes we are born to be in relationship with God. Otherwise, we will experience an emptiness, a feeling that something is missing. St. Augustine captured this hunger eloquently: “Our hearts are restless until they can find rest in you, O God.”
Leo Tolstoy's book titled A Confession described his own search for meaning. He pursued it in carousing social circles of Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia. He sought wealth, fame. Even with a loving wife and thirteen children, one question haunted him: “Is there any meaning in my life which will not be annihilated by the inevitability of my death?”
Tolstoy eventually discovered that simple farm people found the answer through their lively faith—their relationship with God.
We each need a loving, ongoing relationship. No human relationship will satisfy us completely, because God created us to live in relationship with Him.
Yes, God made every human being in His image. Somehow we broke that relationship: clouded that image of God with sin. Good and bad, generosity and selfishness, light and dark, all live within us.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus re-established our relationship with God through his death/resurrection. Where there was death, now we find life. Where there was an empty tomb, now we find hope.
Jesus Christ has freed us from death and nothingness so that we can be in relationship with God forever. He founded a church, a community of disciples to continue His saving work. God transforms us through the sacraments into new creatures, called to live as His sons and daughters.
Various indicators point to the hand of God. The order in the universe presupposes an “orderer” like a watch presupposes a watchmaker, hope presupposes a future; and so forth.
There are also signs that appear to point away from God—for example, genocide or even pandemic disease. But we do have a role in continuing God's work.
An aha moment for the doubting Thomas was the appearance of Jesus. Yes, Jesus lives, and because He lives, you and I live. Life with God is the ultimate purpose. Someday God will transform us into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.
At a funeral mass, we hear the words, “For those who believe, life is not taken away, life is merely changed.”
Let us pray that our faith in God will empower us, like Thomas, to cry out every day, “My Lord and my God.”
