April 18, 2004
Acts: 5:12-16 + Revelation 1:9-1112-13,17-19 + John 20:19-31
Thirty-six years ago, this was the Gospel on the Sunday of my First Mass in Thanksgiving at St. John the Baptist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. It is always the Gospel on the Sunday after Easter. In it we are always promised peace,
comforted by the Easter faith of the apostolic church, entrusted again with our mission as people of God, and stunned by the simplicity and purity of the first creed proclaimed by Thomas.
To really draw from this Gospel its deepest truth, and to penetrate the meaning of the resurrection, we must remember that this Gospel was composed for the third generation of believers. None of them had “seen the Lord”. This narrative then is not just about Thomas. It is about people who are coming to faith in the resurrection and have never seen the Lord. In John’s Gospel, there is no Ascension.
John is unfolding the mystery of the “Glorification” of Jesus Christ. In his understanding, the return of Jesus to heaven has not left the community orphans. In fact, what happens is: they begin to discover how the risen one lives in their midst. Instead of assigning the death, resurrection, and ascension to points in time, John saw a single activity of the Father. The difficulty John confronts is that the whole experience is too good to be true. We approach every extraordinary and wonderful event with disbelief. Whatever it is, it is always too good to be true, and we eventually have to overcome that “disbelief” by surrendering to it. Thomas had to surrender in faith to the One who has been glorified.
Jesus has fulfilled what he promised. He has come again and is seen. The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit has come, and those who gather even with their doubts are to continue the work of confronting sin, which in John’s Gospel is rejection of belief in Jesus as the Son sent by the Father. (See John 8:21-24)
It is “sin” that Jesus confronts here – disbelief This is about believing, not about doubting Notice that Jesus says: “Do not be unbelieving.” It is dis-belief that is confronted here, not doubt. When Thomas is confronted by the Word in his disbelief, he surrenders – he does not touch the wounds.
The oldest dream in the human heart has come true. We can believe it. It is not too good to be true. Everything that comes from God is “good.” Nothing is “too good.”
In the end, the faith of Thomas; the faith of all who have not seen rests upon individual response in faith to the Word.
Reliance on past accounts is not what matters. They may awaken one to pay attention, to look, to listen; but in the end, the foundation of hope comes from our own belief in Christ risen. We might at first seek signs and wonders, visions, and all kinds of extraordinary ways to believe, but we should not depend on them.
The greatest sign God has given is the resurrection of Jesus itself, and the surest way to come into contact with this sign is the presence of the Spirit in the world,
in a people raised up.
It is why we gather in this holy place. It is why we bring our children here. It is why we tell them of Jesus Christ, His victory, and his mission. It is why we walk through the waters of Baptism and call down again and again the gift of the Spirit.
Christ alive, yesterday, today, and forever. He is not gone from us. He is within us, and like Thomas, we shall come to know him and confront our disbelief in this room in the company of others who share in his glory, who share in his life, and who share in his Spirit.
Thank you for accepting me into this community with such open hearts.
I begin my thirty-seventh year of priesthood with joy with gratitude and hope, because I have come to count on your support and encouragement; and I never feel as though I am without your companionship in these years of my life.
As long as God gives me voice to proclaim this Gospel I shall do so,
but I want you to pray with me today that other voices will be raised from among us. Pray for your children to find the vocation to which God has called them; or pray for yourself that you may have the wisdom and the courage to find yourself standing here if you seek God’s will.