SECOND SUNDAY EASTER (B) 15 April 2012
Last Sunday at Easter we would have all made the profession of faith as we either renewed our baptism promises or were baptised. To make the profession of faith is not a very complicated matter, but the ritual that surrounds it – with baptismal water – indicates that it is an important moment. It sets us on a pathway through the season of Easter until we celebrate the end of Easter at Pentecost in six weeks time. Over these six weeks we will reflect on the meaning of the faith that we have professed. This won’t just be a reflection that purifies ideas in our mind. Ultimately, our faith is lived, so we must keep asking ourselves the question, what difference does faith make to our concrete lives.
The incident in today’s gospel tells us something fundamental about faith – what it is and how we live it. The apostle Thomas becomes the main character. He wasn’t in the room when Jesus appeared to the other disciples on Easter night. A week later they are all gathered again and Thomas is with them. He wants proof that Jesus is risen; he wants to be able to see and touch the wounds. Jesus appears again and shows Thomas the wounds in his side and hands, and tells Thomas to touch them. At this point Thomas realises that he doesn’t need to see and touch. Then comes his famous profession of faith, “My Lord and my God.” On hearing Thomas’ profession of faith, Jesus announces that for generations to come people will make the same profession of faith without seeing or touching. He is speaking about us.
Our profession of faith is not based on any proof that Jesus is risen. When we renewed our faith last Sunday we were recognising what God has done. The earliest profession of faith was the simple statement: This Jesus who was crucified, God has raised him from the dead. The focus of our faith is Jesus, whom God has raised from the dead. To encounter Jesus is to come face to face with God’s mighty work. Our faith is never simply a body of knowledge; it is a gift of God that gives us sight to see and recognise what God has done in the world. Our faith is not located back two thousand years ago at that moment when Jesus appeared to his disciples. Our faith is in the God who, in raising Jesus from the dead, has changed the world for all time. Our faith is in the God who acts now in our world.
When Jesus appeared to his disciples he had a very simple greeting, “Peace be with you.” If we know and understand this greeting of peace, then we will recognise what God has done in our world. In the context of the gospel scene, peace is connected to seeing the wounds of Jesus. This tells us something about what it means to say that the resurrection has changed the world. It can be very tempting to imagine that through the resurrection of Jesus the old world has simply been wiped out, the way we might delete an image on a computer screen. But that is not what happens in the Gospel. The risen Jesus still bears the marks of his suffering and crucifixion. The greeting of peace does not pretend that those wounds never happened. Just the opposite: the peace Jesus offers is God’s action reconciling the world, transforming it, making it new.
The wounds of Jesus will be a constant reminder that the world can refuse to listen to Jesus or to know him. They are a reminder that people can be motivated by greed, or fear, or jealousy, or anger, or any number of actions that bring destruction. Our faith allows us to trust that God will transform these and give us peace.
There is always a temptation to see faith as some sort of magic potion that lifts us out of the world and its burdens – a type of whitewash that rubs out all the hurts, disappointments and wounds. Rather than this, faith calls us to keep our feet firmly planted on the ground. That is where we will see the action of the God who raised Jesus from the dead.
We are not like Thomas who saw the risen Jesus before his very eyes. Rather we see through faith. But we must keep the eyes of faith wide open. We can’t see the marks that the nails made in Jesus’ hands and feet. But we can see the wounds that still disfigure our world, and the wounds that point to our own pain. We can see the ideologies that drive groups as well as individuals to behave in ways that break down harmony and peace. We can see the greed that often drives people to work simply for their own interest and with little concern for others or for God’s creation. We can see the wounds that we bear from being hurt by others; or the wounds that we see others carrying because of something we have done.
And all of this can begin to get too much for us. We begin to think that we can’t do anything about it. That is true. The point of recognising these wounds is not to work out what we can or should do, but rather to open our eyes so that we might be ready to see what God will do. It is in these concrete situations that we hear the greeting of the risen Jesus, “Peace be with you.” The peace he offers won’t wipe out the wounds we see around us as though nothing ever went wrong, but it will open up for us a future that transforms our world and our lives.
Fr Gerard Kelly
