A blessed Easter to all.
In the evangelical text of last week, on Easter Sunday, three people with a great love for Christ were presented. They went to the tomb at dawn: Magdalen, Peter and the beloved disciple. They saw the rolled stone and the folded sheet, the shroud … but not the body of Jesus.
This happened on Easter morning. Today’s Gospel narrates the manifestation of the Risen One to the disciples the afternoon of the same day. And it begins by saying where they were. They were locked up at home, with the door locked because they were afraid of the Jews. Note that it does not say ‘the apostles’ or ‘the Ten’ but ‘disciples’ (Ten because Judas was no longer and on this night of Easter. Thomas is also missing.).
While everyone is locked inside the house, Thomas is outside. We begin to like him already because he is not afraid of being outside. If the text mentions ‘disciples’ it means that it is not only referring to the ten who were in the Upper Room, it is addressed to all the disciples. Therefore, the experience narrated here is what all the disciples should do. They are afraid of the Jews … We must clarify that, in the Gospel of John, the ‘Jews’ are not all the people of Israel… NO.
In the Gospel of John, they are the image of unbelievers, of those who oppose Jesus’ proposal for a new world. They are those who are uncomfortable with the light of Jesus and prefer the darkness of the ancient world. This first community is scared.
It is the image of the Church afraid of those who do not accept Jesus’ proposal of man. The proposal of a new world, of a new society … It is the Church that is afraid to face those who think and live in a different way. They lock themselves up and close the doors, she (the Church) sees evil everywhere, even where it does not exist and isolates because she fears not knowing how to answer the questions the world would ask her. The Church doesn’t know how to behave… doesn’t know how to give the reasons for the choices she makes. When the Church is afraid she closes in on herself.
And fear is always a bad advisor to the Church because it makes her aggressive, bigoted, fanatical as it has happened in the past. Instead of dialoguing and proposing her own convictions, she tries to impose them.
When we study the history of the Church we remember some fears: the fear of science… when the Church was totally closed to rationalism, to the discoveries of Galileo, to evolutionary theories.
Also, the fear of democracy, the fear of freedom of conscience. And also, the fear of Bible studies, the new interpretations that were made from new historical and archaeological discoveries. And it took a Council to cast out all these fears. Fears are not lacking today to the Church as she must face a society that we know well and that is always less inclined to accept the strong proposals of the Gospel: renunciation, sacrifice, demanding life projects. This is all out of style in the world today and less difficult options are preferred… marriage while it lasts… It is difficult to form a stable family, to commit in a union of faithful and unconditional love… this seems like a proposal from other times. Many people prefer today what could be called ‘consumerist’: the pleasures that I can immediately enjoy; what I like is fine.
Faced with this society and this world, disciples can be tempted to lock themselves up, stay away for fear of confrontation, for fear of being seen as retrograde, medieval people who disagree with the present time and renounce to what Jesus has said: ‘be salt of the earth and light of the world’. The disciples must remain in the world. Let us ask ourselves why the disciples on Easter night are afraid. The reason is that they had not yet had the experience of meeting the Risen One.
And all our fears always have the same origin: the light of the Risen One who must illuminate at all times the decisions of our lives is missing. I think that among us there are even more admirers of Jesus of Nazareth and of his moral proposals, more than those who really ‘have seen’ the Risen One. What happens to the disciples in Jerusalem on Easter night because of their fears? Jesus comes and is in their midst. The verbs used by the evangelist John are important.
We must keep it in mind: it does not say that Jesus ‘appears’, makes himself seen and then disappears. NO. It is a presence that remains in the middle of the community of the disciples. It is the event that changes everything in this first community of disciples: the presence in their midst of the Risen One. And it changes everything in the Church today when we realize that in the Christian community the Risen One is still present. The evangelist John uses a special verb to say that they have had this experience of the encounter with the Risen One… they have seen him or, better, he has made himself seen.
And the verb ‘orao’ is used. Last Sunday we distinguished three verbs… in our languages we have only one verb: ‘to see’, but in Greek there are three verbs to say ‘to see’ and they are used by the evangelist. The first is: ‘blepo’; is seeing with the physical gaze, which is verifiable. So, Mary Magdalen saw the stone moved. Then we have another verb: ‘theoreo’: the one who has seen begins to go further, to reflect, it is a seeing that goes beyond, goes towards the invisible. Then we have another verb: ‘orao’.
And this is the verb that the evangelist John uses to describe the experience they have had: they have seen what with physical eyes cannot be verified. See the invisible. They see the Risen One; this gaze is the gaze of faith, the gaze of love. The gaze that allows us to contemplate what is real but that physical eyes cannot verify. The evangelist says that on Easter day the disciples became aware of a new presence, a new way of being present of Jesus in their midst. A presence that exceeds all limits that belong to this world, limits of space and time. And it is a presence that is real today as well.
If we are not aware of the presence of the Risen One in our midst, all those fears that we have mentioned and that were experienced in the history of the Church will reappear.
Let us now listen to what these disciples, who are together out of fear rather than faith in Christ, see:
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.”
When Jesus manifests himself to the group of disciples gathered on the evening of the day of Easter, the Risen One tells them: “Peace be with you” and then he shows them his hands and his side. It is not an apologetic gesture as if Jesus wanted to demonstrate his own risen embodiment. We must erase this image that we see in the western paintings: Jesus coming out of the grave, with his body and returns in our midst. NO. This is not the resurrection.
Resurrection is not coming back to this life but to enter the world of God, the definitive world, the world where all of us will enter one day. Why is he showing his hands and side? A person is not recognized by the hands and the side; a person is recognized by the face. But, instead, Jesus shows his own identity in his hands and on his side. Therefore, we must contemplate well those hands because they are the revelation of the hands of God.
The Old Testament speaks of the hands of God, but the revelation of the face of God and his hands is progressive and the full revelation of the hands of God is found in the hands of Jesus of Nazareth. What do the hands mean? The hands indicate action, the works that one does. And we, looking at the hands of Jesus, we see that he shows his own identity by the works he does with his hands. In general, when the hands of God are spoken of in the Old Testament it is in a positive sense: God does good with his hands…. But we also have references to punishing hands. When God extends his hand over Egypt, the plagues come. Also, the threats of one of the Maccabees brothers when he says to the king: “You will not escape from the hands of God.” It’s a threat. Also in the letter to the Hebrews we have that expression that reflects the language of the rabbinical homilies… ‘It is terrible to fall into the hands of the living God…”.
But instead, let’s look at full disclosure of the works performed by God through the hands of Jesus. The crowd marvels of everything done by the hands of Jesus: they heal, when he meets the leper Jesus reaches out and caresses him. Also, the beautiful scene of Jesus who takes the children in his arms and caresses them with his hands, imposes his hands on them. Also, the hands of Jesus that wash the feet of the disciples. These hands present the proposal of the new world, of service, of the gift of love.
And these hands were also nailed, blocked by those who wanted to perpetuate the ‘old’ works. They are the hands of the ancient world, of darkness, they were the hands that destroyed, that attacked, that made wars, committed violence. Hands that did not ‘give’ but ‘took’, which were selfishly monopolizing. This ancient world wanted to block this new world, made of service, of works of love, nailing them to the cross. Jesus presents these hands as his identity.
After showing the hands, he shows the side from where blood and water came out. The blood in the Semitic culture indicates life, a life that has been totally donated out of love. And water is new life, that of the Spirit. It is the divine DNA that we have been given. The hands and the side are, therefore, the identity card of the Son of God. And not just about Jesus. They must be the identity card of all the sons and daughters of God, since having received the ‘Spirit’ of Christ, the life of the Eternal that Jesus brought to the world, is also for us now our identity card. And these hands perform only acts of love.
And when the disciples saw this identity of the Risen One, “they were glad to see the Lord.” Joy brings peace, it is the identity of a person who lives according to God’s design. Sadness comes from thinking that the gift of life, as we see it in Jesus, was a mistake. Joy is born from the discovery that the love that has been poured does not end. Every work of love remains. Then the Risen One says: “As the Father has sent me, I send you.” We have seen that these disciples were locked up at home out of fear. Now the Risen One invites them out. They should not be afraid. He sends them out into the world.
What is he asking them to do? He sends the disciples to show the world their hands, which should be like Jesus’ hands. Send the disciples to make to the world a proposal of different hands: hands that are committed to life, not death; hands that do not commit violence, they build a world of peace. The Church exists to make the Lord’s hands present and visible, to carry out his works, to bring to fruition the new world that he has begun.
The world must see in the works of our hands the works of the hands of Jesus. Why did Jesus do these things with his hands? Why did his hands move like that? Just for love. Because he was guided by the Spirit. And on Easter Jesus has communicated this Spirit to the community of his disciples.
The verb that the evangelist John uses is “has breathed” on them. It is a very rare verb. It appears only twice in the Old Testament. The first time was during the creation of man: “God has breathed into man his breath.” Then it is mentioned again in the book of Ezekiel when this breath gives life to dry bones that are on the plain. And in the New Testament only here.
Now we can understand the meaning that the evangelist wants to give to this breath of the Risen One. He is the new man who is created by the gift of the Spirit, it is the divine filiation. And the text continues: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
The Council of Trent claimed that Jesus instituted the sacrament of penance with these words. He has given the disciples the power to forgive sins. The sacrament of reconciliation is certainly a precious gift given to us to regain the life that is inclined to sin.
But Jesus’ words have a deeper, broader meaning. ‘To forgive sins’: the verb used here is ‘fiemi’ = to cast out, it means to make disappear the unjust world… that world where the hands are used to harm people and nature. This is the world of sin.
Therefore, the disciples have received the Spirit and must cancel, cast out, sweep away sin, the ancient world. Jesus is giving enormous responsibility to our community. If sin is not cast out, the responsibility lies with the disciples that do not allow themselves to be guided by the Spirit that the Risen One has given them at Easter.
This was the manifestation of the Lord to the disciples gathered on Easter night. Thomas was missing. Eight days later, therefore, on the Lord’s day, Sunday, When the community gathered, Thomas was also there: 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 nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
In the Gospel of John, the characters are real: Peter, John, Andrew, Nicodemus… but, in turn, these characters become symbols of a different way to relate with the Teacher. And Thomas is like the representative of those who have difficulty accepting the Risen One. He is the one who seeks rational, verifiable proof of the resurrection. All evangelists mention that the disciples did not immediately come to faith in the Risen One. It has cost them. They had many doubts.
Mark, at the end of his gospel, says that when Jesus manifested himself to the eleven, he reproaches them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. Luke, when the Risen One shows himself to them says: “Why are they troubled? Why do doubts arise in their hearts?” And in Matthew, in the last chapter, in the last manifestation of the Risen One, presents it by saying “some still doubted”.
So, it wasn’t just Thomas who has doubted and found it difficult to believe in the Risen One; they all had doubts, questions. When John wrote his gospel, around the years 90-95, Thomas had long since died. Why does John take this figure? Because it has cost him more than the others.
Thomas is the symbol of all this difficulty that the disciples encountered and that we also encounter. They have had a hard time believing. They have asked themselves, as we also ask ourselves: What are the reasons that lead us to believe, to see the Risen One? And, is it possible for us today to do this experience? Is there evidence that he is alive? These are the questions that we ask ourselves today.
And John takes Thomas as the symbol of the difficulty that every disciple encounters. Let us now look at the figure of Thomas. When Thomas is introduced the evangelist always adds: ‘Didymus’ which means ‘twin’. It is the third time that Thomas appears in the Gospel of John. And it always appears as a ‘twin’. Someone’s twin … whose? The evangelist insists a lot. Twin of every disciple! Now we must understand how it is that we are a ‘twin’ of this Thomas who has difficulty accepting the Risen One. We are his ‘twins’ because we are like him.
But, before, I want to clarify immediately: Thomas left the community of the disciples, but it is not twin ’of those who leave the Church and withdraw, despising others because they feel like the true disciples, feels superior… Thomas is not a ‘twin’ of those who, perhaps shocked by what happens in the Christian community, embrace atheism or become a member of another religion.
Thomas did not leave the group to go his way; he maintained connected with those who shared with him the option of following the Master. In fact, after eight days, we found him again with the community. He is a “twin” of those who suffer, of those embittered at certain times by ecclesial experiences and they leave this community for a time, perhaps because they do not understand certain options. He is a “twin” of someone who has believed in the new world; of those who have given their souls for the proposal of Christ…
Let us think of the catechists who for 20 years insisted on proclaiming the Gospel, dedicating time and energy and they have a moment of discouragement, of disappointment. Let’s put some clear examples. Some, even today, withdraw from the Church because of scandals appearing among the disciples that have devastating consequences.
Or those who are disillusioned with a monolithic, centralized, backward ecclesial structure, where power is still competing. The church that still presents itself with a certain interest in wealth; or also for a Church that is still medieval, a little Constantinian, clerical, triumphalist, not really evangelical. If one goes away, rejects this Church because its limits, it is not Thomas ‘twin’… those who leave because of that are on their own.
Thomas ‘twin’ is the one who has a difficult time, but then he or she returns to the community because he or she knows that Someone is present there (they will discover later), the Risen One, who holds this community together and who with this community carries on your new world project. The disciples, the ten, have already seen the Risen One and they approach Thomas… it is interesting that the verb used here is not ‘they said to him’, ‘they all tell Thomas’, that is, it is a continuous action, they tried to convince him. ‘We have seen…’. They told him about their experience.
Thomas is one who would have liked another type of proof. He would have liked rational, verifiable evidence. And in this is our ‘twin’ because we too would like to have proof of the resurrection of Christ. It is not possible because they are experiences not related to our world, but to the world of God. We can also meet God in our personal privacy, being at home, praying individually. But the Risen One can be seen and found only in the community of the disciples gathered on the Lord’s day.
Let’s listen to how the evangelist narrates the Easter experience of Thomas in the day of the Lord:
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.
Eight days later Thomas was also together with the disciples. The meeting is on Sunday. Jesus is in the Lord’s day among the disciples and always with the same greeting: Peace be with you. It is the greeting we feel on the Lord’s day pronounced by the presiding officer of the Eucharistic celebration: ‘Peace be with you’. It is the greeting that the Risen One gives to the disciples. He has done it with the ten and now he does it with Thomas.
The disciples have abandoned him, even reneged the Master, but the Risen One does not rebuke them, always gives them his peace. Also, when we present ourselves on the Lord’s day with all our weaknesses, we receive no rebuke. The greeting is always peace. “I give you peace.”
Then he says to Thomas: Look at my hands and touch my wounds; reach out and feel my side.” It is not a reproach to Thomas. Jesus fulfills the desire that Thomas had, to touch, to see his hands and his wound that has left his side open. It is the invitation to Thomas to always have his gaze fixed in Jesus’ hands and on his side.
It is exactly the invitation that is made to us on the Lord’s day, to contemplate his hands and his side because if we always have before us what those hands have done, that only built love, when we leave the Church, during the week, we will always have the mission in mind that the Risen One has given us: show everyone his hands with our hands. How can we observe those hands? How can we keep our eyes fixed on that side of the One who has donated all his blood, that is, all his life?
We have the answer in the Eucharist, in the Eucharistic bread. When Jesus wanted to summarize, when he wanted to present to us a sign, he presented his whole life story in bread. “I became a bread of life; I have donated totally as food of life”. There, on the Lord’s day, we are invited to do exactly what Thomas wanted to do: look at those hands and look at that side. We should always do it because if we do not have our eyes fixed on those hands and on that side, we will not be able to reproduce the presence of Christ in the world.
Thomas makes his profession of faith. The most beautiful ever. Precisely he who was presented as having a hard time believing, has on his lips the most beautiful profession of faith: “My Lord and my God.” This expression is important because we are in the time of emperor Domitian who wanted to be honored as lord and god. His order was formulated in this way: ‘Domitian, our lord and our god orders that…’ Thomas tells us that the disciple of Christ does not have as a point of reference ‘this lord and this god’ who is the emperor of Rome, presented in the book of Revelation as the beast because it represents the ancient world. Our Lord and our God is the one who introduces us those hands that only built love and that side that indicates the gift of his whole life.
I wish you all a good Easter and a good week