Acts 4:32-35 Psalm 133
1 John 1:1-2:2 John 20:19-31
How many of you can remember the good ol' days of handwritten letters? When I lived overseas for six years, I used to write and receive Aerogrammes. They were cheaper to send but I remember how special it used to be to get a handwritten letter from home.
And if you had a special love relationship with the sender or were in the near pathological state of courtship love, those written letters could make your loved one seem so near, almost seeming like a palpable presence. Fast-forward to when you married your loved one and live with them and sometimes presence is so taken for granted it seems like an absence, or like the proverbial two ships passing in the night. And so to use the poetry of contradiction: Absence can be presence and Presence can be absence.
I would submit to you that the Doubting Thomas story, is actually about the presence of Christ in his absence. And the way in which the presence of Christ can be known when Jesus is gone, is through reading the Gospel words about him and coming to belief in the presence of Christ within one's life.
The Doubting Thomas story is in fact, only a set up for the writer of John's Gospel to promote the witness of his written words. How so?
The punchline of the Doubting Thomas story is this: "these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."
Can we appreciate the contrast presented in the Doubting Thomas Story?
Thomas is the example of everyone who says, "seeing is believing." Only those people who got to walk and talk with Jesus in his lifetime, really have valid proof and valid reasons for believing in him.
Poor me, I live after Jesus is long gone. My belief would be strong if I had been fortunate enough to be a contemporary of Jesus.
We know this isn't true, because lots of people lived and saw Jesus but never believed in him.
So, this Gospel story is dealing with the "inferiority" complex of the members of the early churches, who did not have the privilege of being contemporary with Jesus of Nazareth. "Don't blame me for not believing John; I did not have the privilege like you to see either Jesus of Nazareth or his special post-resurrections appearances."
And what is John's Gospel saying: Dear members of the church. Your spiritual experience of the Risen Christ is not inferior. In fact, it is more faithful than Thomas's experience. You are blessed because you believe without seeing.
So how can we know that we have a valid experience of the presence of Christ?
And the criteria are hidden within the Doubting Thomas story. 1-The experience of the Peace of Christ in your midst. This is why we pass the peace at the Mass. To evoke the evidence of Christ by living reconciled, peaceful lives in community. 2-The Holy Spirit has been breathed into our lives, as evidence that the life of God which was interior to Jesus is also interior to us. 3-The practice of the forgiveness of sins; Christ is not present when people retain the sins of each other. Forgiveness, which is sometimes a very difficult practice, is proof of the presence of Christ.
The Doubting Thomas story today, reiterates some important truths. Many of the best experiences in our lives have come because of what we have read. Insights through the written word have changed our lives. John's Gospel writer wrote that Word was in the beginning with God and Word was God. And John writes that his words are written that we might come to belief. His written words can evoke belief.
Let us not feel inferior in our experience of the Risen Christ. We have the insights of the written word which have moved us to belief. We have the interior presence of the Holy Spirit. We have the practice of the peace of Christ. And we have experience mutual forgiveness of each other in community.
All of these are proofs of the real presence of the Risen Christ. Amen
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