Scripture Reflections for the Second Sunday of Easter, Sunday of Divine Mercy
Year A, Lectionary 43
While many focus on "doubting Thomas," the other aspects we need to ponder on is the importance of the church community, the peace Jesus offers us and the presence of Jesus' wounds with his resurrected body. We require faith that Jesus is resurrected, faith in God's peace even amidst our "wounds," and faith in all of us united as a church in Christ's body.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Baptism • Believe • Belong • Body • Charity • Church • Communion • Community • Creation • Disciple • Doubt • Eucharist • Evangelize • Faith • Fear • Forgive • Forgiveness • Grateful • Healing • Holy Spirit • Hope • Identity • Joy • Justice • Love • Mass • Mercy • Mission • Peace • Prayer • Reconciliation • Relationship • Resurrection • Scar • Share • Sight • Sin • Suffering • Temple • Thankful • Thomas • Trust • Value • Weakness • Worship • Wounds •
“The Resurrection is not only victory over the tomb, it is the dawn of a new Eden, where God and humanity are brought together again.”
“When Jesus looks at Thomas...he doesn't just see the doubter. He sees the whole person. The man whose courage and critical thinking had given him the strength to be one of his most ardent followers, but have also made it hard for him to believe in this improbable miracle.”
“If you and I marinate in shame, we can't feel the effects of Jesus's love”
“Actually, Jesus wanted Thomas to believe. He wanted him there. He wanted Thomas there because Thomas belonged. That's a powerful thing, church family, to belong.”
“Jesus enters locked rooms not to shame but to restore, not to condemn but to commission. He gives peace before apologies are made. He gives mercy before it is deserved.”
“as the wounded Christ reveals himself among us in the joy of the Resurrection, as we brave the coalescence of our lived experiences of hurt and hope, may we meet one another with such coherent mercy, bearing witness, standing in awe, announcing, beholding, embodying 'peace be with you.'”
“For God, peace is not the absence of chaos but it's a matter of being able to walk through it with faith”
“see that though Jesus had mortal wounds he lives and because we are his disciples we too will live beyond our mortal wounds”
“if you want to be close to the risen Lord you must be close to the community whom God has put you with, the closer you are to community the closer you are to the risen Lord”
“In a very real way Thomas literally was expressing what those apostles had been feeling the moment before Jesus had come through that door…Thomas was willing to say what the other folks were thinking but maybe didn’t have the courage to say.”
“this is how you encounter the resurrected Christ: community. By staying in community...those whom God has placed in your life. You stay close to them, you stay close to community and you will be close to the resurrected Christ.”
“what Jesus is doing here is in a sense inaugurating once again the new creation but in this case the power that's being revealed to that action is not the sacrament of baptism...but here it's the power to forgive and retain sins”
“life is worth living because Christ lives and he lives in us”
“I have been inside the empty tomb but I have grown to have faith in the resurrection through the witness of others, of those who profess the resurrection but do not deny the reality of Good Friday. I need the whole of the Paschal mystery.”
“What scars on us will tell the story that we fought the good fight and we conquered? What marks are we going to show to him that these are signs of a true discipleship?”
“they were joyful but they had a hard time grasping and really believing what they were seeing. That Jesus was in their midst. It wasn't simply that Jesus had risen from the dead but that Jesus was again and again showing this ability to overcome the limitations of flesh and bone.”
“and where does Thomas find Jesus? In Church. Not in the building, not in the Cathedral. Among people. Church. The Church is fundamentally first and foremost a people.”
“According to the Gospel of John then, Jesus is the original apostle because he's the one sent from the Father and so when he sends out his apostles, we can't treat their authority and their teaching as if, 'well that's different, you know, than Jesus'”
“let us follow Ignatius' example and his exhortation that we should name, like Thomas, the very things that we need. What is it that you need to experience the resurrected Lord in your life right now? And second, be ready to receive whatever the Lord has to give you even if it's not exactly what you think you need”
“Anyone who apologizes is the stronger one, for it is easier not to apologize than to swallow your pride and say you are sorry. The one who forgives is the stronger one, for it is easier to get revenge than to forgive.”
“There is a natural human impulse to hide our wounds. They make us seem weak or needy or maybe even unlovable. We have a desire to present the best of ourselves, hide our imperfections and conceal any painful or shameful past experiences but Jesus models just the opposite.”
“a week after Easter, has the resurrection made a difference in your life?”
“expect the resurrected in the unexpected. In our simple, mundane, everyday living.”
“When we show mercy to others, we're showing mercy to Jesus. And when we receive mercy, we're receiving mercy from Jesus. So our focus should be on him.”
“I don't think we should really refer to this just as 'doubting Thomas.' We should call it 'doubting and believing Thomas.'”
“if you're living like the first Christians believe then you should be praying every single day, just like the early Christians did”
“And once we work to see God then it's through this belief that we may have life in his name, a life that invites others, especially those clouded by despair, to see light in the darkness”
“Resurrection comes at a price, it always follows the cross. It carries indelible marks. Resurrection doesn't negate suffering, suffering is part of every story.”
“Isn't that after all the nature of love? The very nature of love is not to hoard. The very nature of love is to share.”
“Rather than getting up and finding something to complain about, when you wake up in the morning and you open your eyes find something to give God praise for. Find something to thank him for. And then throughout the day don't miss those moments where he gives you a chance to see his grace and his blessing.”