Homily for the 2nd Sunday of Easter, C

Jesus speaks clearly to this moment, not with words, but with a gesture; He showed them his hands and his side.

I have Mass on Sunday, April 27

at St. Isidore, 7:30/9:30 am

at St. Andrew, 5:00 pm

frjoedailey@gmail.com 

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to John. 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." 

"Thomas," called Didymus, one of the twelve, "was not with them when Jesus came." So the other disciples said to him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger into the nail marks, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Now, a week later, his disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands, and bring your hand, and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God." Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe, because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed." 

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book, but these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. 

The Gospel of the Lord 

In the movie Conclave, don't worry, I'm not giving too much away, there's a disruption in the Sistine Chapel where the Cardinals are sequestered. The Cardinals are alarmed and frightened, and then one of the Cardinals speaks with clarity about the moment. They chose that Cardinal to be the next pope. 

Something like that happened to Jorge Bergoglio. Cardinal Egan, the Archbishop of New York, was in Rome, leading the synod when the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001. He had to return to New York, so he asked Cardinal Bergoglio to take his place. That's when the other Cardinals got to know him. 

In 2005, when Pope John Paul II died, the Cardinals gathered to elect Cardinal Ratzinger, Benedict XVI. The rumor is that Cardinal Bergoglio was number two on each ballot. When Benedict resigned in 2013, the Cardinals gathered again. In the meetings leading up to the Conclave, Cardinal Bergoglio spoke with clarity about the moment. "When the Church does not come out of herself to evangelize," he pointed out, "she becomes self-referential and then gets sick". 

On the night of his election on March 13, from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis set the tone for his pontificate. Let us pray for the whole world that there may be a great spirit of fraternity. 

Francis was installed as pope on March 19. The next week was Holy Week. Remember how surprised we were on that first Holy Thursday? Instead of Mass at St. Peter's, Francis went to a prison and washed the feet of inmates. The whole world was enchanted by someone in that position who seemed to be deeply Christian. 

Just eleven days ago on Holy Thursday, even though he was physically unable to wash their feet, Francis went again for the last time to visit the inmates in prison. To the end, Francis was a bridge builder, seeking to work with all faiths and denominations. 

Now Pope Francis has left us. Like the disciples locked in the room after Jesus' death on the cross, we feel lost and alone. Jesus enters into the room where the disciples are locked in fear and speaks a word of peace. Jesus speaks clearly to this moment, not with words, but with a gesture. He showed them his hands and his side. 

God's beloved comes, not as a military conqueror without blemish, but rather as a strong and peaceful shepherd bearing the wounds of the world, a child of God and a child of humanity. Jesus is the word made flesh, and flesh means vulnerability. Flesh means wounds. This insight is at the core of today's Gospel. It's not that Thomas had doubts about the resurrection. It's that only a wounded and risen Savior could truly be the promised one. 

Thomas wants to know that the suffering of Jesus on the cross was not wiped away by the resurrection, that Christ's suffering was real in some way permanent, and it mattered. In other words, it is precisely in woundedness our own and others where we find God. 

This sounds a lot like Pope Francis' vision for the Church. Shortly after being elected Pope, in an interview in America magazine, Francis said, "The thing the Church needs most today is the ability to heal wounds and to warm the hearts of the faithful. It needs nearness, proximity. I see the Church as a field hospital after battle." 

Thomas is incapable of uttering the words "my God" unless he sees the wounds. Jesus' resurrected body is still wounded, even though the wounds could have been healed without a trace, because it is through touching his wounds that we come to know God. 

Simone Weil proposed this image. Two prisoners whose cells adjoin communicate with each other by knocking on the wall. The wall is the thing which separates them, but it is also their means of communication. It is the same with us and God. Every separation is a link. 

In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus identified himself with the poor and suffering. "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." The vulnerabilities, both physical and metaphorical, of all those suffering in our world are Christ's wounds too. Christians are called to know Christ by touching and helping heal the brokenness of others. 

When God fashioned the human from the dust of the earth, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living being. In today's Gospel, Jesus breathes God's life-giving Spirit into us, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." 

This is John's Pentecost, although the Spirit comes not with wind and flame, but with Jesus' own breath, the very life force of the one raised from the dead. Jesus sends them out to be God's peace and forgiveness in the world. This is the breathing of the Church. We are gathered around the altar for communion and sent out. God is filling and emptying the lungs of the Church. This rhythm belongs to the oxygenation of the Church's lifeblood. Without it, the Church would stop breathing and die. 

In the Eucharist, we receive the Body of Christ, and then we become the Body of Christ. Where will you take it? What will you do with it? How will you make Christ present in the world.