2nd Sunday of Easter A - Homily 1

Homily 1 – 2005

Today’s Gospel passage is one of the special ones in my book.  John’s purpose in writing the gospel is made clear here:  that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing this, you may have life through his name.  His purpose, then, is not so much to prove that Jesus is the Christ - he was writing to the already converted - but that we might be led to deeper faith in him as the way to having life through his name.  He wished to make it clear what the fact of believing entails.

Thomas can be viewed as taking the act of faith seriously, because faith in Jesus is a total commitment to him: to his vision, to his mission.  It is not something to nod our heads to carelessly, thoughtlessly.

 What ultimately brings conviction? What leads from careless acceptance, to total commitment and to deep friendship?  What someone else says about another, even someone generally reliable? or is it more likely to be some personal experience - perhaps vague and hard to put words around - but that nevertheless convinces and motivates?  We can in fact have that experience, that inner conviction, without always being clearly aware of it.  It may need some jolt - some crisis or tragedy - that initially seems to lead us in the direction of doubt, but surprisingly doesn’t.

But there are other ways to come to awareness, other than through crisis.  Another way is to learn to know, to notice and to become familiar with our inner experiences.  But that takes effort and time.  It means trying to quieten down our active minds, to turn off our deliberate planning of our future, our revisiting our past, and to notice not what we are doing but what is already happening in us of itself.  It means pulling back for the moment from the future, cutting off from the past, and settling into the present, the right here and now.

John suggests, perhaps, that, as we do that, along with other things going on in us, we can get in touch with that deep sense of peace that Jesus constantly shares with us.

The first words of the risen Christ to the disciples were: Peace be with you.  The second words of the risen Christ to the disciples were: Peace be with you.  One week later, before focussing on Thomas, but including them as well, his first words were again: Peace be with you.

It is important, too, to be clear about the context on both occasions.  Jesus was wishing his peace to a group of fearful, weak, cowardly, guilty, messed-up and faith-challenged friends.  It doesn’t matter then where we’re at, what’s going on around us or inside us, whether we’re guilty, faithless, distracted, restless, or whatever - the Christ within us is now sharing with us his peace.

Today’s invitation from John is, like Thomas, to take our faith commitment seriously: to go deep, to notice the peace within that Jesus is giving now beneath the layers of hurts and hopes, of anticipating and planning, of licking of past wounds or re-living of past pleasures of keeping in control.  We don’t have to block out these noisier layers, but can let them be, take no particular notice of them, and move closer to the core of our being.

Though the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, Jesus came and stood among them, and said: Peace be with you.