We Are Agents of Peace and Divine Mercy
1. Encountering the Risen Lord
2. My Lord and My God
3. Do Not Be Afraid
Introductions
1. Encountering the Risen Lord
The Risen Lord is here with us. Do we recognise him? Are we aware that he is here with us in every celebration of the Eucharist and even in everyday life, also and especially in our moments of trials, difficulties, failures? He is risen, and he lifts us up, he raises us up, now. Ask him today to make you believe in him as the Lord of life.
2. My Lord and My God
Eight days after the resurrection the disciples of Jesus were together, afraid, believing and yet doubting, for that Risen Jesus was too good to be true. In the same way we have come together today as the community of Jesus. Yet we too are often timid and afraid, filled with questions, perhaps doubts, with a faith that is fragile. But we are here together because we are a community that believes. We know that the Lord is present in our midst, even though our eyes cannot see him. And with Thomas we say in this Eucharist: “My Lord and my God.”
3. Do Not Be Afraid: Peace Be with You
It is difficult for people who are scared to stand up for what they believe in, to speak openly about their convictions. It is difficult for those who have suffered much or have seen much evil and distress to accept that things can change for the better, and that even our misery and wounds can help lighten the burden of others. All this becomes possible and believable when we meet the Risen Lord. He bears the scars of his wounds and yet he is the glorious Lord. By his wounds we are healed. And he tells us here in the Eucharist to go out and spread his message of joy.
First Reading: Many Came to Believe in the Lord
Because Jesus was alive in the apostles, he continued his work of healing through them. Because he was alive in the Christian community, many came to believe in Jesus.
1 Reading: Acts 5:12-16
Many signs and wonders were done among the people
at the hands of the apostles.
They were all together in Solomon’s portico.
None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.
Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord,
great numbers of men and women, were added to them.
Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets
and laid them on cots and mats
so that when Peter came by,
at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.
A large number of people from the towns
in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered,
bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits,
and they were all cured.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-2
R. (1) Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. or: R. Alleluia.
Let the house of Israel say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let the house of Aaron say,
“His mercy endures forever.”
Let those who fear the LORD say,
“His mercy endures forever.” R.
I was hard pressed and was falling,
but the LORD helped me.
My strength and my courage is the LORD,
and he has been my savior.
The joyful shout of victory
in the tents of the just. R.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone.
By the LORD has this been done;
it is wonderful in our eyes.
This is the day the LORD has made;
let us be glad and rejoice in it. R.
Second Reading: Do Not Be Afraid: I Am the Living One
The apostle John was encouraged in his faith by a vision of the risen Lord. In his message to the seven churches, symbolic of the universal Church, he encourages the persecuted Christians to be without fear and to be firm in the faith.
2 Reading: Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
I, John, your brother, who share with you
the distress, the kingdom, and the endurance we have in Jesus,
found myself on the island called Patmos
because I proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus.
I was caught up in spirit on the Lord’s day
and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet, which said,
“Write on a scroll what you see.”
Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me,
and when I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands
and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man,
wearing an ankle-length robe, with a gold sash around his chest.
When I caught sight of him, I fell down at his feet as though dead.
He touched me with his right hand and said, “Do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last, the one who lives.
Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever.
I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.
Write down, therefore, what you have seen,
and what is happening, and what will happen afterwards.”
Alleluia John 20:29
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me, says the Lord;
blessed are those who have not seen me, but still believe!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: Doubt No Longer but Believe Without Seeing
Like Thomas before the Lord appeared to him, we have not seen Jesus in the flesh. Happy are we if we have enough faith to recognize the Lord in our lives and in our neighbor.
Gospel: John 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nail-marks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
Commentary
Timothy Radcliffe commented on this passage:
“It is the sight of the wounded Christ that frees the disciples from fear and makes them glad. It is the wounded Christ that transforms them into preachers.
One cannot be a preacher without getting wounded. The Word became flesh, and was hurt and killed. He was powerless in the face of the powers of this world.
When we see the wounded Christ, then we can face the fact that we are already hurt. Perhaps we have been hurt by our childhood, by growing up in dysfunctional families… by botched attempts to love, by ideological conflicts in the Church, by sin. Every one of us is a wounded preacher. But the good news is that we are preachers because we are wounded. Gerard Vann, an English Dominican, was one of the most famous writers on spirituality in the English-speaking world since the Second World War. He struggled with alcoholism and depression all his life. That is why he had something to say. We have a word of hope and mercy because we have needed them ourselves. The scars on the body of Jesus have become the doors of the sun of our faith. May the Peace of the Risen Lord be upon us. Amen!
>For the sake of His sorrowful passion – have mercy on us and on the whole world!<
Blessing
Go and take Christ with you
into your everyday life,
for he sends you to your brothers and sisters
as the Father sent him.
May he become visible
in your spirit of faith,
in your courage, your goodness
and your love that reflects God’s serving love.
And may God bless you for this mission:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go in the peace of Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia! R/ Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!