Readings: Acts 4:32-35 1 John 5:1-6 John 20:19-31
During the Easter season the Church’s liturgy celebrates the effects of Jesus’ resurrection. Today’s readings present the transforming gifts of resurrection faith on the life of the early Christian communities that were called to live in an often hostile world. In gratitude we sing the words of this Sunday’s responsorial psalm: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,/ his love is everlasting” (Ps 118).
In the Easter season the first reading is taken from Luke’s Acts of the Apostles which recounts the work of the Holy Spirit in spreading faith in the resurrection though the witness of the apostles “in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Today’s reading is one of three idyllic summaries Luke gives of the life of the early Jerusalem community (see also 2:42-47 and 5:12-16). Throughout his Gospel and again in Acts, Luke places special emphasis on the proper use of material goods. In this summary, the community’s oneness in heart and mind moves them to share their material goods in common. The apostles’ heroic witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is accompanied by a life of charity for the needy in the community. This life of service, rather than worldly power, brought the early community respect from would-be believers.
Throughout the Easter season in the B cycle, the second reading will be taken from 1 John, an exhortation addressed to a community divided by bitter conflict over how to understand the nature and role of Jesus. Some in the community were apparently divorcing belief in Christ and love of God from charity for one another. In this selection, the author insists that to believe in Jesus as the Christ changes our relationship with both God and with one another. Belief in Christ as the revelation of God’s love makes us, in John’s words, “begotten of God.” This new life implies that we now love both “the father” and “the child he has begotten.” The sure sign that we love God is that we keep his commandments, and the only real command in the Johannine tradition is “love one another as I love you” (John 15:12).
The symbolism of Jesus “who came through water and blood” refers to the same issue. At Jesus’ death in John’s gospel, a soldier pierces Jesus’ side and we are told that “immediately blood and water flowed out” (19:34). By the life-giving water of baptism the Christian is “begotten” of God, but that rebirth implies a self-sacrificing life of love for others modeled on Jesus who is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
John’s account of Jesus’ resurrection appearances has two distinct episodes: an appearance on the first day of the week to the disciples with Thomas missing and a second appearance a week later when Thomas is with them. In the first Jesus is fulfilling the promises he made to his disciples in the farewell discourse at the Last Supper (see chs 13-17). He gives them the gift of “peace” and the Holy Spirit/Paraclete as he sends them into the world, just as he was sent by the Father. The Spirit enables them to forgive and bind one another’s sins.
The appearance a week later to the disciples and Thomas reveals Jesus as the crucified one, who was wounded in his hands and side, who has triumphed over death and is now Thomas’s “Lord and God.” The whole incident addresses the readers (us), who have not had the privilege of seeing the glorified Jesus. Thomas is transformed from an unbeliever, who must see physical signs, to a believer, who confesses Jesus as “my Lord and my God” when he sees the glorified Jesus. But Jesus’ last words praise those who have believed on the testimony of others, without having seen. “You (Thomas) became a believer because you saw me. blest are they who have not seen and have believed.”
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