2 Easter Sunday Cycle C April 28,2019
Lectionary Link During the season of Easter, we study the process of how the followers of Jesus became weaned from the physical presence of Jesus of Nazareth and how they began to accept the validity of the presence of the Risen Christ which came to them in many forms.
One of the major experience of new parents is the experience of sleep deprivation. Why? Because the newborn baby wants the perpetual presence of mom or dad, but mainly mom for obvious reasons.
New parents might celebrate with Champagne, the very first time that they get an entire night of sleep. A baby before she or he is weaned from Mom's milk has to be weaned from the actual physical presence of mom or dad.
Imagine the journey of a baby; she goes from being inside of mother, one in closeness with mom, and then she is evicted from the maternal body at birth. What can replace being totally one with mom and inside of mom? Initially physical touch and closeness to the maternal body or other body is an indication of Mom's presence in the life of her child. But mom has a life, in addition to mothering; she had other roles and occupations. She cannot be perpetually close and connected to her baby.
Mom has to begin the process of weaning her baby from her presence. She goes from holding and touching and allowing her baby to taste her, that is her milk, and she speaks or sings to her baby. She lets her baby see her without actually having to hold or touch her. And I imagine a baby can smell her mom, too, probably as much as mom and everyone can smell baby by-products too.
How can I convince my baby that I am still present with the full attention of my love even when I don't have immediate sensorial connection with my baby. How can my baby know that I am still present even when she's in her crib in the next room?
If we understand the weaning of a baby from the maternal presence, perhaps we can understand the insights of the Doubting Thomas story.
This Doubting Thomas story is being written in the community of the Gospel of John, perhaps 5-6 decades after Jesus.
What is the issue for many followers of Christ who lived when most the eyewitnesses of Jesus were dead and gone?
Most people in the Gospel of John community did not walk with Jesus, or see him or talk with him. Yet there was an impressive community of people who had other experiences of the Risen Christ. What is the status of those experiences? Were they inferior to the experiences of the 12 disciples? They were not inferior; they were different and they were, according to the words of Jesus, blessed experiences. "Bless are those who have not seen and yet who have believed."
The Doubting Thomas story was written to affirm the validity of the many kinds of experiences of the Risen Christ. They were not only valid, they were blessed and they were mystical experiences of Christ.
What was the nature of the experiences of the Risen Christ?
The disciples experienced appearances of the Risen Christ. St. Paul had a mystical experience of the Risen Christ on his way to Damascus to persecute followers of Jesus. Many, many other people had a mystical experience of the Risen Christ, which they called the baptism of Holy Spirit.
The story of the Doubting Thomas provides us with insights about the reality of the presence of the Risen Christ?
First, you experience the command of peace from the Risen Christ. Life can be experienced as conflict, loss, pain, suffering, anxiety, fear and uncertainty. How can we know the Risen Christ in the midst of all of these? The Risen Christ brings peace to us within and it has the power of a command. And it also means peace within the community; it means we have the ability to live together in peace. In our weekly liturgy, we pass the peace in direct continuity with the salute of the Risen Christ to his disciples. Let us remember when we pass the peace that it comes with the power of the peace of Christ if we sincerely identity with the significance of this liturgical gesture.
Next, we experience the presence of the Risen Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Jesus breathed the Spirit upon them. The speaking of Jesus was his breathing of the Spirit. Remember the words of Jesus in John's Gospel: "My words are spirit and they are life." We know that John's Gospel declared that Word was from the Beginning and Word was God and that Word became flesh in Jesus. How can Word be spirit? Spirit is like the inner mood created by the word context of our lives which provides the framework for us to know and interpret our lives and the best meanings of our lives. The very best meaning of our live is the witness of the Risen Christ.
Thirdly, we can know the presence of the Risen Christ through the practice of forgiveness. In a world of conflict and the clash of egos, it can seem easier to retain the sins of other people. Jesus said to his disciple you have the choice: you can retain sins or forgive them. Forgiveness is the evidence of the Risen Christ giving us power to live together because we don't require anyone to be perfect except God. We forgive each other for not being completely finished Christians. Forgiveness works best when we ourselves are willing to confess to God and to each other our faults in acknowledging that we have more perfection to attain in our lives, so that we can't hold it against others who are not yet perfect either.
Finally, you and I can know the presence of the Risen Christ in the written word of the Gospel. Did you notice how the writer of the Gospel of John, plugged his own writing. "But these things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God and that in believing you may have life in his name." The Word from the Beginning is God; it became flesh in the living deeds and spoken words of Jesus of Nazareth. The Words of Jesus are spirit and life. When the oral chain of command died with the death of the last eyewitness of Jesus, the written word became the technology of memory to keep the word of Christ alive and it still has the ability to evoke the presence of Risen Christ to bring people to belief and life changing experience.
The Gospel writer wrote that there were many other signs that Jesus did that were not written about. You and I could also write our own book of signs of the presence of the Risen Christ in our lives. Maybe you and I have treated the signs of Risen Christ in our lives as anonymous; maybe we have not credited the Risen Christ with the sublime blessings that we have known in many of the events of our lives.
If you and can learn to be honest to the Risen Christ, we may be able to come to confess, with St. Paul, that Christ is all, and in all. Amen.
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