4/24 - 2nd Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday 2022

 From Fear to a bold Witness
Fear is a part of everyone's life, although sometimes we call it worries or concerns or anxieties instead. All through life, there is fear, fear, fear. And the resurrected Christ in today's gospel comes to the apostles who are living in fear. And in this frst visit, he says, "Peace be with you." And he aims to dispel their fears, as they are behind locked doors, worried whether they will be located, handed over, and crucifed as Jesus had been. Then, in this same visit, a second time, Jesus says, "Peace be with you. " What is this second imparting of the peace for? Peace, peace, peace be with you. Why is he repeating this? The peace he is offering is the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is for inner peace and keeps the outside from disturbing what is within. And the second imparting of peace is meant, primarily, to empower them with the gift of the spirit so that they can offer peace to others. Because the second time, he says this. "Peace be with you, as the father has sent me, so I send you to bring peace to others." So, the frst gift of peace is to conquer the fears inside. And then the second gift of the spirit is to help the apostles to conquer the world's fears.     The  Gospel  narrative continues the story of Jesus’ appearance as one where Thomas is missing. The ten are convinced that Jesus is alive. But when Thomas rejoins them after Jesus has vanished, Thomas is highly skeptical.  He is forever labeled, ‘the doubting one.’ A week later, Jesus appears to all eleven of them and invites Thomas to make good on his skeptical challenge.  He wanted to physically probe Jesus’ body to confrm the miraculous. Yet when confronted with Jesus' invitation to touch him (Jn 20:27), Thomas backs off. He rapidly comes to his senses and confesses his faith and accepts Jesus’ new invitation: “Do not persist in your disbelief but become a believer.”     Then, all Thomas did was see Jesus and his wounds, and then he believed. But, of course, that is just what the other ten apostles did in the frst appearance of Christ when Thomas was absent. Thomas had trusted Jesus and believed he was the Messiah. But then the Romans killed Jesus; and when they did, they also killed the hope in Jesus that Thomas had. How much Thomas trusted before the crucifxion can be understood by the way Thomas hardened his heart against trust in the aftermath. “The bigger they are, the harder they fall,” we say. And the bigness of Thomas’ heart and the greatness of his trust in Jesus can be seen by how hard Thomas fell when he thought his trust was betrayed.
When heartbreak is so powerful, it can need space to breathe, to let its pain come to fruition. Maybe if Thomas had not been able to move all the way from heartbreak to skepticism, he would not have been able to move back to Jesus so powerfully either.  Without any more evidence than any of the other apostles had, Thomas says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!” This indeed is the biggest expression of faith in the entire scripture. Saint John Paul II near the turn of the new millennium, made a famous comment in an Easter homily. He said, "We are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song. We shall never abandon the resurrection of hope." Christ rose from the dead. He came back to us to give us his peace, both to be enjoyed and to be shared. Now it is up to us to live the challenge without fear. Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O