By Rev. Canon David B. Tabo-oy
v26A week later the disciples were together again indoors, and Thomas was with them. The doors were locked, but Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” v27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands; then reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop your doubting, and believe!”
v28Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
v29Jesus said to him, “Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me!” – Read: John 20.19-31
This is the second Sunday in Eastertide. ‘Eastertide is the period of 50 days, spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. It is celebrated as a single joyful feast, called the “great Lord’s Day”. Each Sunday of the season is treated as a Sunday of Easter. In some traditions, including the Anglican Communion, Easter Sunday is the first Sunday of Eastertide and the following Sunday (Low Sunday) is the second Sunday of Eastertide and so on.’[Wikipedia]. The gospel reading appointed this Sunday according to John contains a trove of faith lessons but unfortunately these are often under emphasized. It is the faltering faith of Thomas, one of Jesus’ original disciples that has gained much focus that the overall context is often missed.
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After Jesus was arrested and crucified the disciples went into hiding. They were very afraid. They were on that distressing situation behind locked doors when the risen Christ came to them. And Jesus greeted them, “Peace be unto you” in Hebrew, ‘shalom.’ Now during this time when Jesus was with His disciples, Thomas was absent. So Thomas doubted that Jesus had appeared to the disciples. The Hebrew word shalom, for “peace,” is a most comprehensive word, covering the full realm of relationships in daily life and expressing an ideal state of life. The word suggests the fullness of well-being and harmony untouched by ill fortune. The word as a blessing is a prayer for the best that God can give to enable a person to complete one’s life with happiness and a natural death. If the concept of shalom became all too casual and light-hearted with no more significance than a passing greeting, Jesus came to give it new meaning. At Bethlehem God announced that peace would come through the gift of God’s unique Son. The mission and ministry of our Lord made it quite clear that Jesus had come to introduce the rule of God and to order peace for the world.
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Light amidst darkness, Christ conquers death. Christ is the Light! His light is hope and life. Let us not lost sight of this core message of Easter as we over emphasized during the liturgical celebration of Easter Vigil and preached in the pulpits all over the world on Easter day. True to his being the light, the Lord Jesus enlightens the darkened world with his loving acts of teaching, healing, caring, driving away demons and many more. His suffering and death on the cross provides the penultimate of his love and concern to the world. His resurrection is God’s greatest act to make this light shine perpetually upon us. This is the light we celebrate in Easter. Pope Francis said: “We proclaim the resurrection of Christ when his light illuminates the dark moments of our existence”. We live in a darkened world of dying hope due to suffering and anxieties caused by nobody but us. The challenge and task for us today is to continue and persevere in the proclamation and banner the light and hope that the Lord’s resurrection has brought in our individual and collective message. The resurrection is at the core of our beliefs as Christians and without it, our faith is meaningless. Easter and resurrection brings hope and so we have to proclaim it to infuse hope to our desperate people in these times of great crisis caused by the pandemic, by calamities, by repression, by economic difficulties, by division caused by political campaigns in this election. For truly “the reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul” as Victor Hugo writes.
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On this April morning, when the world outside our doors has put away Easter and moved on to the election frenzy, we continue to be challenged to live of the reality of the resurrection and its impact to our lives as believers. We are challenged to reach out and embrace the future in faith, believing that the light of the resurrection will enable us to make our way in the world. We are challenged to seek peace and reconciliation, knowing it is the work of Christ and the Church. And most of all, we are challenged to remember that while we may look at ourselves and see only doubting Thomases, God looks at us and sees the best: God sees beloved children, faithful friends, spirit-filled partners in the ongoing work of creation.
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At the very beginning of the Gospel of John, the author proclaims that, through Jesus, God has brought life and light to the world. In the death of Jesus on the cross, it appeared that the powers of darkness were stronger than the power of light, that darkness had overcome the light. Through the resurrection, we are shown that the light still shines. Jesus commissioned the disciples to continue his work, to spread his light throughout the world. Their future changed through Christ’s gift of the Spirit. In our baptism, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit and made Christ’s own forever. We, too, have a new future because of Christ’s resurrection. We, too, have been commissioned to spread the light of Christ.
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Doubt is not a weakness. Rather it is simply an opportunity, a space, a possible fertile ground in which strong faith will grow and ultimately blossom. Francis Bacon stated, “If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.” (The Advancement of Learning). Perhaps this is the understanding of Thomas when he said, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” After the tragic events that befell his master and friend, he, like the other disciples, had carried the weight of fear and doubt that came from having his hopes dashed. He had not seen the resurrected Jesus as the others had and he would not be satisfied until he had seen him with his own eyes. He would take no one’s word for it. Today with the proliferation of fake news doubt permeates the consciousness of every discerning person. But now we know that the resurrection is not fake news.
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Let the light and hope of the resurrection dispel the fears and doubts that assault us today. Never doubt in the dark, what God has told us in the light. I say this because it is in moments of spiritual light, that God shows us true reality. These moments of spiritual light are so very important, because they allow us to get through many dark nights of doubt and despair, that come into the lives of every single one of us. In moments of light, God has told us that he will never desert us. Don’t ever doubt that. In moments of light, God has told us that resurrection is reality. Don’t ever let the darkness of despair cause us to doubt that.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Let us pray.
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery
established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all
who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christs Body
may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, Collect, Second Sunday of Easter)
