Gospel: Jn 20:19-31
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 nailmarks 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.
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I remember how often as a newly ordained priest I gave blessings to persons or things which these persons had. As I have grown older I have noticed young priests who have been newly ordained doing the same. It is as if when one has entered into a new state of life one wishes to share with others the good things which the new state of life offers. This appears to be happening with the Risen Jesus also. Apart from the last discourse of Jesus in St. John it is only after the Resurrection to New Life that Jesus greets his disciples with the greeting “Peace be with you.”
In extending Peace to his disciples Jesus was in fact giving to them what had been won by his passion, death and resurrection. This peace represents a return to the original harmony which had been God’s gift to humanity (harmony with God, harmony between human beings, harmony with nature, and harmony within themselves) and which had been lost through the disobedience of our first parents but now regained through the obedience of Jesus. This return of this GIFT is in fact the Mercy of God in operation
In the gospel reading for this Sunday, the disciples are locked away in the upper room out of fear. Being locked away because of fear tells us that the disciples were neither in harmony with the society around them nor was there harmony within themselves. They were probably also ashamed after having abandoned their master and so did not see themselves as being in harmony with God. While they were in this confused state “Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” not once but twice. In this act Jesus gives to his disciples the blessings of his new state and gives them through the power of the Holy Spirit the ability to be agents of harmony in the society. Sin was the cause of the loss of God’s gift harmony in the world and sin expressed through pride and selfishness continues to be the cause of disharmony in the world today. When Jesus told his disciples “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” Jesus was giving to them the task and the power to be agents of harmony in the society in which they found themselves.
Scripture scholars however are unanimous in the opinion that this commission of Jesus was a commission given to all disciples of Jesus. All who have received the Holy Spirit are called to be agents of harmony, removing sin and structures of sin, the causes of disharmony from the world.
This is how the saints lived. All of them men and women, clerics and laypersons were tireless in their resolve to remove sin and the structures of sin from the societies in which they lived and worked. Through them and the experience of a renewed harmony, God’s mercy was and is experienced in our world. The lives of saints like mother Teresa of Calcutta, St. Francis, Maximilian Kolbe and Bl. John Paul II, all attest to the truth of that commitment. You and I, the present day disciples can do no less.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, the result of New Life is Peace, A Peace that the world cannot give because the world embraces so often structures of sin and with that embrace comes a a negation of the harmony which is your gift and desire for this world. You gave to your disciples Peace however and with that peace the power to reject sin and sinful structure. Help us to be faithful to our baptismal promises and reject sin so that we may attain your gift of true peace. We ask this through the intercession of Mary our Mother and Jesus, the giver of Peace. Amen
