Reading of the holy gospel according to Saint John (20,19-31):
At evening of that day, the first of the week, the disciples were in a house, with the doors closed for fear of the Jews. And at this Jesus entered, stood in the middle and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
And saying this, he showed them his hands and his side. And the disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord. Jesus repeated: «Peace be with you. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And having said this, he breathed on them and said to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; from whom you withhold, they remain withheld.
Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. And the other disciples said to him: “We have seen the Lord.” But he answered them: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, if I do not put my finger in the hole of the nails and put my hand in his side, I will not believe it.”
After eight days, the disciples and Thomas with them were inside again. Jesus came, the doors being closed, stood in the middle and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas: “Bring your finger, here are my hands; bring your hand and put it in my side; and do not be an unbeliever, but a believer. He answered Thomas: “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him: “Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are those who believe without having seen. Many other signs, which are not written in this book, did Jesus in the sight of his disciples. These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Lord's word
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He gospel refocuses our attention on what happened on the day of the Resurrection of Jesus. And he insists, in a special way, on the difficulty that the disciples had in coming to believe that he was really alive. The fact, more than scandalous, should be encouraging to us; because it is really true to see how those who would be the first preachers of the Risen Christ were also the first unbelievers; It is exhilarating to see that Jesus had to go to great lengths to convince them that he had risen. We can thus see ourselves identified with the poor image that those disciples gave of themselves; Identifying with his fears and his stubbornness would help us identify, likewise, with his recovered joy and faith; Remembering what happened to them 'at the evening of that day' is the way we have at our disposal to make their experience our own. It does not mean that, like those disciples, we too do not have it all with us, not being able to believe what our eyes see: the Risen Lord, today as yesterday, is willing to overcome our resistance and convince us that he is really alive, today as yesterday. . This is the good news of the gospel…
Because, if a Christian is one who lives to confess that Christ lives, a Christian will be one who lives feeling obligated to offer forgiveness and peace. It is not enough to recover for ourselves, Christians, peace and joy; He who does not know or cannot give them, he will never be sure of having truly received them; whoever does not make them available will end up losing them. The Risen Jesus gave peace to those who he was going to send to pacify the world; He broke his fears by presenting himself to them alive; He did not grant them peace so that they could continue locked in their fears and in their homes: he ordered them to pacify the world, with no more weapons than his Spirit nor more wisdom than knowing that they were his envoys. Jesus did not convince his disciples with logical arguments, nor did he waste much time winning them over; He did not overcome his fears by staying with them, sharing their confinement: he sent them into the world with his forgiveness and with his Spirit… Let us say clearly that confessing the risen Jesus without having touched him, proclaiming him our Lord and God without having seen him, is a joy. at our reach.
JESUS IS ALIVE AND HIS MERCY IS FOREVER!!!
- That is resurrection
- We still need to resurrect
- The search for God
- What to do to be happy?
#Sunday #EASTER #April #Cycle
