Homily for 2d Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Easter

April 24, 2022
John 20: 19-31
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“Jesus came and stood in their midst … and showed them his hands and his side” (John 20: 19-20).

by Erwin Kusthardt

The apostles and other disciples of Jesus are hiding in fear.  Mary Magdalene and some of the other women have already been to Jesus’ tomb and found it empty, which Peter and the Beloved Disciple have confirmed (20:1-8).  Angels have told the women that Jesus is alive (Luke 24:5-7), and Mary has actually met him outside the tomb (John 20:11-17).  But they all remain puzzled and fearful.

Then Jesus comes, wondrously, strangely, among them despite the locked doors (20:19).  After greeting them with God’s own peace (20:19), he shows them his wounds (20:20).  It’s truly the man who was crucified and speared in the chest by a soldier to be sure he was dead.  There’s no mistaking that the man who died so horribly and shamefully and was buried now stands before them whole and very much alive.

Moreover, he doesn’t reproach them for their cowardice—for running away and abandoning him, for trembling with fear—or for disbelieving the women’s report that he has risen.  Instead, he bestows peace upon them, and he commissions his disciples to continue what he began:  to reconcile sinners with God (20:21-23).  By gifting them with the Holy Spirit, he’s forming them into the Church with the sole purpose of making peace between human beings and God.  On Divine Mercy Sunday, there can be no better gospel reading than this, which speaks of forgiveness and divine compassion.

Disbelieving Thomas also becomes convinced a week later when he, too, sees and probes the Lord’s wounds (20:24-28).  The wounds are real, the body is real, and God’s gift of eternal life to believers is real.  Thomas is so convinced that he’ll go farther than any other apostle to preach Jesus Christ as Son of God and Savior of the world (cf. 20:31), all the way to India.  To this day the Christians of southern India regard themselves as disciples of St. Thomas.

The Church continues the work of Jesus, the work of the Holy Spirit, the work of forgiving sins.  But that’s not all.  The 1st reading (Acts 5:12-16) demonstrated that the Church also continues Jesus’ ministry of healing the sick of body and mind as well as of soul, and of making war on the kingdom of the devil.  Jesus came to make us whole; physical and mental healing and driving off Satan are signs that he heals our souls, signs pointing toward our own resurrection and eternal life.

Thus the Church remains concerned with the corporal and spiritual works of mercy:  caring for the sick, the hungry, refugees, those in need of education as well as care for the soul.  Pope Francis offers to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, trying to make peace, as Popes repeatedly tried to do in the 20th century, e.g., Benedict XV during World War I, Pius XII during World War II, and John Paul II on numerous occasions.  (John Paul in fact mediated successfully between Argentina and Chile in a territorial dispute that might have led to war.)  Thus the Church is in the forefront of bringing relief to victims of wars and natural disasters thru Caritas International, Catholic Relief Services, religious orders, and diocesan ministries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the U.S., everywhere.

So we too are sent by the Risen Jesus to be instruments of his peace:  to our families, our fellow parishioners, our neighbors.  We are sent to spread the compassion and forgiveness of the Lord Jesus, to heal with kindness and gentleness, to share our time with others and perhaps our talents and our financial resources.

More important, Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church is an invitation to receive his forgiveness ourselves, to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation on a regular basis.  When we know the Lord’s compassion for ourselves, it’s more likely that we’ll share that compassion with others.  The gift of the Holy Spirit is also an invitation to soak in the life of the Spirit by regular reading of the word of God in the sacred Scriptures.  “These are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that thru this belief you may have life in his name” (20:31).