2nd Sunday of Easter C - Homily 6

Homily 6 - 2022

“Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and and put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe”. We call him “Doubting Thomas”; but I am not sure we have got it right. He certainly did more than doubt the other apostles — he disbelieved them. Did he also disbelieve that Jesus could have risen? If Thomas doubted the possibility of Jesus’ resurrection, or challenged Jesus to prove him wrong, Jesus was not put off. On the contrary, Jesus cared for him enough, respected him enough, that he accepted Thomas’s challenge and was prepared to appear to him, to reveal his wounds and even to invite Thomas to probe them.

For several years, people of all ages and backgrounds have been steadily withdrawing from the Church. It started well before the sexual abuse crisis, perhaps accelerated then, and we do not know yet the final effect of the current pandemic. All of those people, no doubt, have their own unique reasons for stepping away, just as all of us here have our own unique reasons for being here this weekend.

One of the things that impressed me in today’s Gospel was the way that Thomas spoke to Jesus. He called him, “My Lord and my God!” — the first time that Jesus was addressed that way by anyone. Thomas had stepped into a beautifully personal connection with the risen Jesus. The address was formal; but the newness for Thomas was the change of Jesus to his now-risen state, to the one-to-one relationship on Thomas' part.

What I think led to Thomas’s response was his recognition of Jesus’ personal interest, respect and love for him. I wonder if most of those who have withdrawn from the Church over the years had ever come to a deep, personal relationship with Jesus, close enough to be convinced of his love. Has their choice been more a step away from the visible Church than a step away from the risen Jesus with whom they had never really personally connected?

What I would love to know now is how to interest those who have disengaged to connect once more, but in a quite different way. I understand to some extent their loss of interest in the Church they knew: the visible Church that teaches and proclaims and criticises and condemns, administered by its clergy and professionals, yet that is hardly less sinful than any other institution and is always in need of reform.

There is, however, another far more basic dimension to the Church. All the bishops of the Church at the Second Vatican Council arrived at a further description that included the whole People of God, laity and clergy. They wrote of it as a living, loving and believing community, the Body of Christ, that faces outward to engage with their world, doing what they can to improve it according to the values and vision of Christ. Through this living community Christ wants to makes our world a wonderful place for everyone to be alive.

Vatican II finished fifty-six years ago. I apologise that we priests have done too little to keep reminding people of this crucial feature of the Church. But it is a powerfully attractive vision, I believe. Many of those who no longer engage with the Church have not abandoned this feature of it; they simply have not heard enough about it nor seen it in action. We may have lost any chance of interesting them now; but as we look to the future with hope, it is the closeness to Christ and insight into Church that we who remain would do well to make our own.