April 2015

The French writer Charles Peguy once said: “The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity. No one understands so well as the sinner what Christianity is about – no one unless it be the saint.” We can understand the position of the saint but may wonder how ordinary, sinful people like ourselves can be said to be at the heart of Christianity. But the readings we’ve heard today may enable us to see things differently. We are sinners whom the risen Lord has looked upon. His look of love and mercy rested upon us when we were baptized; it rests upon us whenever we seek Him in the sacrament of reconciliation; and rests upon us again each time we celebrate the Eucharist. It’s the certainty of forgiveness, fruit of the resurrection, that fills us with the joy of the Gospel.

The apostle was a complex and unique personality. That uniqueness may explain why Jesus chose him in the first place. It is probably that our Lord was determined to use personality for our education. Who knows? Perhaps Mr. Edison learned in the course of his long life the wisdom of RB Graham. “It takes more faith to be an atheist than it does to believe in God.” There are but 3 informative references to Thomas in the New Testament. Perhaps John the Eagle concluded that the neglect of Thomas in earlier accounts did a serious injustice to Thomas himself and to Catholics at large. Thomas is pessimistic, stubborn as that famous mule, and subject to the all too common line that teaches seeing is believing. Someone has noted Thomas had a question mark for a mind. This complicated psyche is graphically illustrated in the 16th century Caravaggio painting of Thomas placing his finger into Christ’s wound. We know the Gospel story and especially its happy ending. Thomas would never forget that searing line of his resurrected Leader, “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe!” The doubting Thomas had received a lecture on faith that he would never forget. It is a message which Edison never learned. Thomas the apostle had told his fellows that seeing is believing. Christ thought the apostle that believing is seeing.

The Gospels tells us Thomas had a twin. Who is his twin? It is you and I. William Bausch tells us that we are all a mixture of doubt and certainty, pessimism and trust, unbelief and belief. On those days, when doubt, pessimism, and unbelief hold the cards, we must hold onto Thomas’ cloak and not let go for dear life. As we leave this Liturgy, we should say a prayer in gratitude for such a person as the apostle Thomas. But in addition each one of us will want to reflect on the aphorism that teaches that it is not sufficient for Catholics to believe their faith. They must tell others about it. “Our lives end the day,” said Martin Luther King Jr., “that we become silent about things that matter.”

Mary Magdalene believed that she had lost everything when Jesus died. John’s Gospel tells us that, when Jesus died on Calvary, Mary Magdalene stood at the foot of the cross with Mary, the mother of Jesus and John, the beloved disciple, as the dying Jesus entrusted His mother and John to each other. She witnessed at first hand the brutal death on the cross of one that she loved so much. We don’t know why it was that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb alone on Easter Sunday morning. Was it that she and the other women had agreed to meet there? Did she, perhaps, want to spare Jesus’ mother the agony of seeing her son’s body before it was completely prepared for burial? On the day of His death, those preparations had been interrupted by the onset of the sabbath. Mary’s journey was solitary also risky. Guards protected the tomb lest any of Jesus’ disciples tried to remove His body. They were rough men; and she was a solitary woman. In those days, as now, in so many places, a woman had little status. Mary Magdalene was the first witness of the resurrection. Yet her unexpected news, so beyond the imagining of any of the apostles, had less credibility in the society of her day precisely because it was reported by a woman. Peter and John wanted to verify her story for themselves. It was only when they entered the tomb of Jesus that they realized the truth of the resurrection.