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Mas homilías dominicales

Daily

Días Laborables

Spanish Version

Second Sunday of Easter

Cycle A

Readings: 1) Acts 2:42-47   2)1 Peter 1:3-9   3) John 20:19-31

The Gospel Reading lets us see how Thomas approached Jesus seeking in the Resurrected one  signs of life.  Until he saw with his own eyes the wounds of the Lord it was impossible for Thomas to believe what the Apostles had told him.  Thomas always showed that he was faithful to the Master.  One time when Jesus decided to go to Bethany, some of the Apostles said to him, “Not too long ago the Jews wanted to stone you.  And you want to go back there?” (John 11:8)  It was Thomas who said to the other Apostles, “Let us also go to die with him (John 11:16).  And when the Lord instituted the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, it was Thomas who, with sincerity, did not care about showing his ignorance.  Worried that the Lord would leave without telling them where he was going, he said to the Lord, “We do not know where you are going, how are we going to know the way?” (John 14:5)  On Good Friday, Saint Thomas was greatly disappointed to see that the Lord had died.  As he contemplated the Crucifixion of the Lord, Thomas suffered greatly.  He thought that the Lord had left forever and that he would not return.  Thomas never forgot that sad day.

When the Lord appeared on the Sunday after the Resurrection, with Thomas present with the others, He said, “Do not be unbelieving but believe.”   The immediate faith-filled answer of this humble disciple was “My Lord and my God.”  And he said it with the intense love of someone who never more would feel the bitterness of being separated from the Lord.  Tradition tells us that Thomas preached the Gospel in India.  There is where he died, living his life until the last moment for the Lord.  The Christians in India still call themselves “St. Thomas’ Christians.”

Disbelief is what we see today in many men and women who, seeking faith, abandon the Church that Our Lord founded to go wandering from church to church.  They say that our Catholic communities are boring, that they are dying.  They say that it could be that the Church was once great but that now it has lost its life.  Others approach the Catholic Church as if they were trying to detect signs of life.  They come with preconceived ideas about the nature of the Church.  They also believe that the Church has died but they say that they seek proof that Christ is still alive as he was when he founded the Church.  As if they were the ones who should give the Church a seal of authenticity.  In reality they do not seek the truth.  They do not come to the Church with humility, prayer and faith.  They do not come believing that Christ is alive.  Their negative attitude can not help the Church to grow.  We should pray that these people will change their attitude; that they will learn to go to church without indifference, without selfishness, without pain; that they will learn to ask God to strengthen their lost faith.  When they begin to give more of themselves to others and become more sensitive to the pain of those close to them they will see that Christ is alive and that he dwells among us.  If we want to be followers of Christ we should be signs of unity and of life, not signs of disunity.

Each one of us should ask Christ to strengthen our faith.  Whoever has faith accepts and has confidence in the word of God.  He or she trusts completely in Christ.  The experience of Saint Thomas shows us that only through faith can we believe and accept in the death and Resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ.