2nd Sunday of Easter; Year C 2016

DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Acts 5, 12-16;  Rev 1,9-11.12-13.17-19; John 20, 19-31: 2nd  Sunday of Easter; Year C  2016)

    It is remarkable to note that the passage of today’s gospel reading is the same for all the gospel readings of the second Sunday of Easter for the three year cycle. This is an indication of its importance in our faith. We note double apparitions of the risen Jesus in the gospel story. The first one took place on the day of the resurrection and the second one eight days later. In the first apparition, Thomas was not there. He would not believe that Jesus rose from the dead and his doubt led him to affirm: Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands…and unless I put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe. In his second apparition, Jesus fulfilled Thomas’ wish when he said to him: Put your finger here…give me your hand, put into my side. Thus Thomas’ doubt was cleared and certainly those of many others too. But what does this gospel passage teach us? Primarily, it teaches that Christ rose from the dead. His showing himself to the disciples and the drama with Thomas are proofs thereof. Thus, the resurrection of Jesus was not a fantasy, nor hallucination. It was not an illusion nor infatuation and certainly not an auto-exaltation of the apostles. It was a lived and documented reality. Peter holds: … Let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him (Jesus) both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2,36). What it boils down to, is that there is no need seeking sensible proofs or experimental confirmation of the resurrection of Jesus. At the end of Jesus’ encounter with Thomas, Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe. 

    Indications of witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus abound. We reckon with those of the apostles whom God chose before hand, as we have in Acts of the Apostles in 2,3; 3,15; 5,32; 10, 41. Note also the testimony of Sacred Scriptures that was brought about by the encounter of the Risen Jesus with two of his disciples on their way to Emmaus: O how foolish you are…Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and enter into his glory? Then starting with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them what referred to him in all the Scriptures (Luke 24, 25-27). We also noted Jesus’ words, where severally he predicted that he would rise from the dead after three days (Matt 17,22-23; 20,19; Mark 8,31; 9,31; Luke 9,22). We have Jesus witnessing to his resurrection in the message He sends to us today in the second reading from the book of Revelation: Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One. I was dead and now I live forever and I hold the keys of death and the underworld.
    As indicated above the gospel story with its two apparitions, has some messages to convey.  One is that the resurrected body of Christ defied all normal physical laws. There was a profound difference between his mode of being before the resurrection and after the resurrection. That was why he was able to enter their midst in closed doors. The second issue is that his presence and connection with his disciples does not cease. He continues to be with them in a manner not perceptible to the senses, but however, very real. It is a presence that is active and effective, but recognizable only through faith and it is only through faith that we can have experience of him.

    How and where can one have experience with the Risen Christ? Such experience, in the first place, will have to take place in the liturgical community of disciples of Jesus assembled particularly on the Day of the Lord. Note also that the apparition of the Risen Jesus to the favoured servant, John the Apostle, took place on a Sunday, on the Day of the Lord as we see in the 2nd reading from the book of Revelation. We note that absenting ourselves from Sunday Eucharistic assembly we lose, each time, the opportunity to encounter the Risen Christ. The Risen Christ is present in the community of the disciples assembled in his name: For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them (Matt 18,18). The Risen Christ is present in the community of the disciples who listens to His Word: It is His Word which reverberates in our ears; it is still He who speaks when in the Church the Sacred Scriptures are read (Sacrosantum Concilium, no. 7). The risen Christ is present in the community of disciples that celebrates the sacraments, because the sacraments are the actions of Christ himself. Vatican Council has it thus: Christ is present with his power in the sacraments to the extent that when someone baptizes, it is Christ himself that baptizes (Sacrosantum Concilium, no. 7). Again the risen Christ is present in the community of his disciples that celebrates the Eucharist in so far it is He (Risen Christ) himself who celebrates through the ministry of the priest ((Sacrosantum Concilium, no. 7). The Risen Christ is also present in the community that frees someone from the burden of his/her sins through the power of the Holy Spirit which was donated to the Church by the Risen Christ himself: Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive are forgiven them … (John 20,23). The Risen Lord is present in the community of disciples that dedicates itself in the healing and mitigating all types of human infirmity, be it physical or spiritual and in his name (Risen Christ) work miracles and wonders as we have in the first reading. The Risen Christ also resides in the community of disciples that lives in harmony and love as is witnessed in the Acts of the Apostles: The community of believers were of one heart and mind and  no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common (Acts 4, 32). We Christians of Nigeria are challenged to have a strong and lively experience of the multiple form of the presence of the Risen Christ in the community of the disciples, that is to say, in the Church. We do so particularly every Sunday when we gather for the Sunday Eucharist. We should be grateful to God for this. However we are even further challenged to witness and make transparent in our civil communities through the witness of our lives the lively and effective presence of the Risen Christ. This involves much work. Let us, therefore, ask from the Risen Lord, the grace to witness effectively his presence in our midst. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye

 

(graphics by blogger)