Sunday Homily 4-11-10, 2nd Easter
Readings: Acts 5, 12-16; Psalm118; Revelation 1, 9-10; John 20, 19-31
Second Sunday After Easter – Reflection on the
Acts of the Apostles continues Luke’s Gospel by focusing on the spread of Christianity after the Resurrection. The focus is first on the work of the Apostles and especially on the position of Peter, and then in the second half of the book, the focus is on the work of Paul.
Today’s reading from Chapter 5 comes immediately after the apostles have been brought before the Sanhedrin (the powers that be in the Jewish community) and told to stop their preaching about Jesus. This is clearly a focus on the question “who will be in charge of the twelve tribes of
Remember, we are dealing with a group who have only the Old Testament to turn to in their attempts to make sense of all that they remember or heard about Jesus. The power of God, working thru Peter is now much stronger than even when Jesus cured. All people need for healing is to have Peter’s shadow pass over them. There is no need for any physical contact! Luke is here building up the importance of the “new leaders” of the people, the apostles.
Our second reading is from the Book of Revelations; a much-misunderstood work, which I wish had never been included in the New Testament! The work is primarily written in an apocalyptic style and its main focus is on the
Second Sunday After Easter – Homily
Poor Thomas! Actually thank God for Thomas! It is comforting to know that someone else had doubts about the resurrection. One week after our high point of Easter Sunday we are immediately given this wonderful little incident. What I like about it is that it allows space for a very natural doubt to exist side be side with the faith in the Resurrection.
Back in 1968 a book was published called Introduction to Christianity by Joseph Ratzinger. The book was a through examination of the Apostles Creed. I remember being surprised when he talks fairly early on in the book about both the believer and unbeliever share, each in his own way, doubt and belief. At the time it struck me as quite surprising. Remember I was a naive seminarian in my early twenties and everything was rock solid! Oh for those nice innocent days!!
I have since grown up to recognize the truth in Ratzinger’s book, and in my own life. If we remember back to the church before Vatican II we seemed to live in a world of certainty. We were told exactly how everything was, now it seems things are messy! It is what happens when you look behind the curtain, as happened to Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
Doubting seems to be an integral part of our lives. We would very much like the comfort of absolute certainty, and we do have it in a few things, like death and taxes, but for all the other areas of our lives we move from one doubt to another, all the while trying to either buy insurance or insulate ourselves in some other way against the uncertainties of life. And belief in God is one area where there is lots of room for doubt, since God is mystery.
So what can we begin to compare or faith in God to in our experience? It seems to me that it is like being in love. You meet someone and fall in love. But the other person is free to respond or not. The minute you force their response it is no longer love. And so our most intimate of relationships with other humans is based on a hope that the other will respond and continue to respond. If I think of God along those lines there is one major difference, God is going to love me, in this relationship; God is the only one taking the risk.
Picture 1: Tony begins Mass
Picture 2: The Offertory
Picture 3: Jim, Bob, Jackie, & friend