Today we come together to celebrate the second Sunday of Easter as stated in your bulletin. I want to call your attention to the fact that it is the second Sunday of Easter and not the first Sunday after Easter.
That distinction is important. By saying that today is the second Sunday of Easter, we are reminded that we are still in the Easter season, the great fifty days that began with our celebration of Easter Day last week. These fifty days will then culminate in our celebration of the Feast of Pentecost.
So, even if our Lenten journey is over, we continue to move during these days of Easter with our Risen Lord and with fellow Christians here and in many places around the world. We strive to the best of our ability, always trusting in divine grace, to stay in love with God.
Unlike the early Christians, we do not have the Risen Lord appearing to us the way he appeared to them on the day he rose from the dead and in subsequent days. That is why in today’s reading, Peter could say with conviction that he and the apostles were witnesses to the resurrection. After these encounters, they were never the same again. With the Holy Spirit Jesus sent them, they set out with boldness to continue the mission that he entrusted to them. And that mission was his passion for the realm of God to take hold in people’s hearts and transform lives evidenced in changed behaviors.
Christians past and present are the fruit of the disciples’ successful mission. We are inheritors of the tradition that they passed on to us, tradition which includes the belief that Jesus has been raised from the dead, even if we have no empirical evidence to show for it. By the grace of God, we are among those Jesus spoke of during his encounter with Thomas.
Remember that story? Thomas, for reasons that continue to remain unknown to this day, was not present when Jesus first appeared to the apostles on the first day of the week after he was executed. When told by his friends that they had seen the Lord, he replied with a response that forever sealed his reputation as Doubting Thomas. He said,
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (John 20:25).
When Jesus showed up the next time and he was there, Thomas, after being convinced that indeed the Lord was alive again said to him, “My Lord and my God!” To which Jesus replied,
“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”(John 20:29).
We are among “those who have not seen and yet have believed” Jesus spoke about. And we thank God for the grace of our faith in the Risen Christ. But with that grace which is a great privilege comes responsibility, the reality of bearing witness to the presence of the Risen Lord in our lives as individuals and as a community gathered in his name.
So, the question for our reflection today and the days ahead is
How am I bearing witness to the presence of the Risen Lord in my daily life and interaction with other people and with God’s creation?
Put in a different way, the question is:
How is our faith that Jesus rose from the dead, how is this making a difference in the way I live my live and in the way we live together as a community in a world that very badly needs evidence of resurrection?
And,
How am I and how are we together bearing witness to new life in the midst of disappointments, hardships, alienation and devastation from war and natural disasters that are afflicting the lives of thousands of people and the natural world?
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to be genuinely Easter people … people who trust and believe that death and its daily manifestations is not the last word in our journey with the Risen Lord. Rather, life lived with the Lord as our constant companion, is. Alleluia. Amen.
