Do you truly believe in the resurrection of Jesus? Is it real to you? Or is it just part of your traditional celebration of the Easter holiday, tucked in there as the central event of a three day journey with Jesus as he surrenders to the Father’s will?
The first reading lets us see how real the resurrection was to the early Christian community. “Awe came upon everyone.” Now that word awe is overused as “isn’t that meal awesome?” or “that movie was awesome.” The definition of awe reveals a deeper truth. Awe is a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder. The feeling one gets in the presence of something vast that challenges our understanding of the world.
Fear! Wonder! Wonder is defined as a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar or inexplicable. All these, when used to reference the resurrection from the dead, give new depth and meaning.
I walk through the three days of the Passion of Jesus , imagining I am present, trying to understand the feelings of Jesus as well as of his disciples, his family, his mother. It can be exhausting. I still struggle to make his resurrection real. It certainly challenges my understanding of the world. What helps me most is my perception of the merciful look in his eyes.
The gospel reading shows us the Face of Mercy. The resurrected Jesus, who was abandoned by his disciples, appears through the locked door in the room where they hid in fear with the greeting “Peace.” And breathing on them, an echo of God’s creation of Adam, says “receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” He has apparently forgiven those disciples their failures and made new men of them. And Thomas, who arrives a week later, unbelieving – a stand-in for many of us – is invited to believe by touching the very wounds we have all caused. My Lord and my God!
And blessed are we who believe even though we have not seen. My Lord and my God!
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