Commentary on Acts 5:12-16; Revelation 1:9-13,17-19; John 20:19-31

On this Divine Mercy Sunday—the first Sunday after the celebration of Easter—the emphasis is on faith in the presence and power of the living Jesus in our midst. About Divine Mercy Sunday, Pope John Paul II stated,

It is a time where we are blessed with divine mercy as it reaches us through the heart of Christ crucified.

The work of Jesus continues
The Risen Jesus now lives on in the community which believes in him. The Apostles are now endowed with the same powers that Jesus had during his life here on earth, not in their own name, but in the name of Jesus their Lord. In today’s First Reading, we are told:

…many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles.

And that:

…more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women…

People came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits:

…they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

It is living testimony that Jesus is active and continues his saving and whole-making work among us for the disciples do these works in the name of Jesus their Lord.

The Apostles proclaim the message of Jesus as Saviour and invite people to join their company. We know that many indeed did come to join them, but there is a telling phrase in the First Reading that:

None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

Is this already a hint of the counter-witness of the early Christians when they were already being regarded with suspicion by the religious and civil authorities and when it was becoming dangerous to be identified with them? They were a group to be admired—but from a safe distance. It is yet another sign that the early followers were about to share the same fate as Jesus himself.

Mixed reactions to be expected
Things have not changed greatly in our own time. For it is through the Christian community and its witness that people come to know of Jesus and are led to faith in his message of truth and life. It is a witness that rests on the shoulders of every single follower of Jesus and we do it not just by explicitly religious actions, but by the very pattern and impact of our daily lives. An impact that arouses both positive and negative responses.

The Gospel, however, brings us back to an earlier stage when the disciples have not yet come to the full realisation that Jesus, whom they saw crucified, dead and buried, is now alive, that he is risen. As the Gospel opens we see them huddled together in that room with the doors firmly locked “for fear of the Jews.” At any moment they dreaded the arrival of the police to arrest them as accomplices of the dangerous subversive who had been executed on Golgotha the previous Friday.

Peace instead of fear
And then, all of a sudden, the Jesus they presumed dead is standing among them. He says in greeting:

Peace be with you.

This can be taken as a blessing, echoing the ordinary Jewish greeting, Shalom. Or it can be taken as a statement of a fact—Jesus essentially saying: “With my presence among you there comes deep inner peace.” This is the same peace that comes when Jesus calms the surrounding storms in the gospel stories. They experience an unutterable joy:

Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

“Lord” is the title for the Risen Jesus.

But it is not just to be a happy reunion. There is work to be done, the work that Jesus began and which they are to continue:

As the Father has sent me, so I send you.

They are being given a mission. The word ‘mission’ comes from the Latin word ‘to send’ (mittere). All followers of Jesus have a mission—all are missionaries.

Passing on his Spirit
Then, when he had said this:

…he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

In John’s Gospel this is the Pentecost experience when the Holy Spirit comes down on the disciples. In Luke’s Acts, Pentecost takes place 50 days after the resurrection, but for John it takes place on Easter Day. For us, it makes no difference—the meaning is the same.

What Jesus does is reminiscent of the Creation story when God “‘breathed’ over the waters and brought life and order into the chaos. He ‘breathed’ again and Adam, the human being made into the image of God, comes into existence. Now, Jesus ‘breathes’ the Spirit of his Way, of his Truth and Life, making of them (in Paul’s term) “new human beings,” full of the Spirit of the Father and Jesus.

The meaning of forgiveness
The very empowering authority of Jesus is transferred to them:

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.

When they act together in the name of Jesus, they have his authority. And above all, their task is to ‘forgive sin’, that is, to bring about a deep reconciliation between people and God and among people themselves, to make all one in Him:

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. (Matt 5:9)

We are not just talking here about “confession,” instituting the Sacrament of Reconciliation, although its roots can be traced to here. Forgiving sin is much more than a juridical act of declaring sins no longer held against someone. It involves the healing of wounds and division between God and people—and between people as brothers and sisters—in one family based on truth, love and justice. That is the work of the Kingdom. That is the work of every Christian community and every member in it.

The doubter
But there is even more to today’s story. Thomas, “one of the twelve,” was not there on that Easter Sunday. He stands for the sceptic in all of us:

Unless I see…I will not believe.

In the Gospel story, Thomas generally comes across as a bit of a grump. He likes to criticise, to put objections, to make difficulties, to call into question. He now wants convincing proof:

Unless I [can]…put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.

The following Sunday—in fact, the Sunday we are celebrating today—the doors are again closed. (This is now not out of fear but as an indication of the way that the Risen Jesus now becomes present.) Again there is the reassuring greeting of ‘Peace’. Jesus now addresses Thomas directly:

Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.

Extraordinary confession
There then follows the greatest confession of faith in all of the Gospels when Thomas says:

My Lord and my God!

Thomas had been invited to touch the wounds, but he does not seem to have done so. And his cry of recognition is not based only on the evidence of his senses. He does not say, “Jesus, it’s you!” Rather, he says “My Lord and my God!” It is, in fact, a profound act of faith in the reality and identity of the Person standing before him. And that is something he cannot see only with his physical senses. Only the eyes of faith can lead him to so speak.

Jesus gives a further word of encouragement, though, is offered for those of us who have not had Thomas’ privileged experience:

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.

Of course, all belief in Jesus involves some element of seeing, of ‘in-sight’. But we have not had the experience of seeing and knowing the Jesus of the Public Life—Jesus before the crucifixion.

However, our faith enables us to see him in all the surroundings of our daily life, especially in those people who are filled with his Spirit and who bring him into our lives. And we also see and find him in all the sick, the weak, the oppressed and the poor around us who provide us with opportunities to know, love and show compassion for Jesus. We are even to see him in those who are hostile or who do harm to us in the sense that we are challenged to be Christ for them in our unconditional love and concern for their well-being.

Breaking down barriers
To see and know Jesus in our lives is, at the same time, to recognise where he comes to us and at the same time to be ready for day-to-day opportunities when we can bring him into the lives of others. Above all, can we be true to the mission Jesus gave to his disciples to be makers of reconciliation, to be peacemakers, breaking down walls of hatred, prejudice and fear? We do this by living lives of integrity, of love and compassion, of real justice for all. Each time we do that, Easter is celebrated and Jesus is alive among us.