2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER (C)

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.

Jn 20:19-31

GOSPEL EXPLANATION

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….

The appearance of Jesus to his disciples was on the evening of that Sunday, Easter Sunday. Their being together seems to allude to the regular Sunday ga-thering of Christians (as Saturday was the regular gathering of the Jews).

The door was locked and yet this did not prevent Jesus from coming into the room. This implies that the Resurrection transformed the body of Jesus. It no longer had the limitation of an earthly body. The body of Jesus is said to be a glorified body.

The appearance of Jesus among his disciples is an assurance that he remains present among his disciples, although now in a different way.

Peace be with you.

Shalom (peace) is not just tranquility and absence of violence. To the Jewish mind shalom (peace) is the fullness of life. And it is the first gift of the Risen Lord to his disciples.

When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

The Resurrection has resulted in a glorified body for Jesus. The transformation may have made Jesus unrecognizable. Yet his wounds remained. And they served to identify Jesus to his disciples.

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

The mission of the disciples is a continuation of the mission of Jesus. And be-cause they are being sent, they are called “apostles”. (The word “apostle” comes from the word “sent”.)

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.”

The word “breathed” recalls the Genesis account of the creation of man: “The LORD God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and so man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). The work of Jesus is seen as a second creation of man, that is, a re-creation or a new creation.

The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Risen Lord to his disciples. This is the Johan-nine version of the Pentecost.
With the gift of the Holy Spirit is given the power to forgive or not to forgive sins. We see in this the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

This must be taken to be a profession of faith on the part of Thomas.

The unbelief of Thomas may be taken as a blessing in disguise. It is an assurance that the Resurrection of Jesus was not the result of hallucination or hysteria on the part of the disciples.

Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.

Undoubtedly the Evangelist John meant this for us who have not seen Jesus and yet have put our faith in him.

IMPLICATIONS

1. The body of the Risen Lord was transformed.

On the last day all of us shall rise from the dead. Our bodies, too, shall be transformed. And if we our souls already inhabit heaven, then our bodies will be like the glorified body of Jesus.

2. The appearance of Jesus among his disciples is an assurance that he remains present among his disciples.

Because Jesus has risen from the dead, he is no longer hampered by the physical limitation of space and time. This means that he can now always be present among his disciples no matter where they are, no matter in what period of history they are. Because of his, he really lives up to his name of “Emmanuel” (God is with us).

3. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

This is the reason why the Eleven (and later the Twelve, with the election of Matthaias) are not only disciples (followers), but apostles (sent) as well.

When the Catholic Church calls itself apostolic, it is because it traces its origin to the apostles. This is important because Jesus did not entrust the mission to anyone else but to the apostles. The Catholic Church, therefore, is the bearer of the mandate of Jesus.

Furthermore, a bishop is authentic only if he can trace his origin to the apostles. It is as if he can find himself in the family tree of bishops whose ultimate origin are the apostles. Consequently, no one can just declare: “From now on, I am a bishop.”

4. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed

“I brought an elephant with me. Do you believe it?”

We often hear it said: “To see is to believe.” But that is wrong because to see is to know. Once you’ve seen it, you don’t have to believe it. You already know it. To believe requires that we accept that what is said is true in spite of the fact that we have not seen it yet.

For example:
• I believe in God.
• I believe that there is heaven and hell.
• I believe that Jesus is the savior of the world.

Perhaps it is easy to believe in these things even if we have not seen them yet. But it is a different story when our eyes see things that make us question if there is a God at all.

A fourth-year high school boy declared he doesn’t believe in God. When he was still small, his parents separated. Neither of them took him. Instead he was left to the care of his grandparents. And now both of his parents have their own families. From what he has seen in his life, he asks: “How can there be a God if these things happen to me?”

On the other hand I have seen another boy in the same situation who did not become angry with God. He continued to believe in a God of Love. He also graduated valedictorian of his class. When I saw him place all the medals he has received on the necks of his lolo and lola, I couldn’t help but say to myself: “How blessed is this boy who continued to believe in spite of everthing!”