Readings: Acts 5:12-16; Rev 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19; Jn 20:19-31
The readings today pose two important questions we need to ask ourselves. The first has to do with our faith in Jesus and the second has to do with our witness to our Lord. In the Gospel reading we hear the very familiar story of “Doubting Thomas” and his statement that he would not believe in our Lord’s resurrection unless he personally inspected the wounds in our Lord’s Body. When Jesus appeared a week later, He showed Thomas His wounds and Thomas exclaimed: “My Lord and my God!”
We recall that the Apostles had to wrestle with the question of our Lord’s divinity and His mission as the Messiah. When Jesus died, the Apostles were deflated because they were hoping He was the Messiah, but that suddenly seemed to have been wrong. They had spent three years with Jesus, so the thought that He was not the Messiah must have been devastating, not only because they put their hopes in the wrong person, but even the question of what this meant for them. We also know that they were fearful of the Jews, and that some of them harbored doubts even at the time of our Lord’s ascension.
The resurrection, and the post resurrection appearances solidified their belief that Jesus did, in fact, rise from the dead, but that did not necessarily demonstrate He was God. Perhaps, at that point, they could believe He was the Messiah, the One sent by God, but to believe He is God was another question all together. With this background in mind, the confession of St. Thomas stands out like a brilliant light in the midst of darkness. In an instant, Thomas went from “Doubting Thomas” to “Believing Thomas.”
St. John may have harbored some doubts of his own, but he tells us that when he went to our Lord’s tomb on Easter morning and saw the linens that had covered our Lord’s body, he believed. Did he believe Jesus was both God and Christ, or did he just believe Jesus was the Messiah? Then he heard the confession of St. Thomas and our Lord’s response that those who had not seen but believed are blessed. But when he saw our Lord in glory, St. John says he fell at the feet of Jesus “as though dead.”
This encounter with our glorified Lord happened many years after the resurrection and, there is no question about whether or not St. John believed in the divinity of Jesus. He tells us in the second reading that he was exiled to Patmos because he “proclaimed God’s word and gave testimony to Jesus.” But this brings us to the questions presented at the beginning of this article. Do you believe that Jesus is both Lord and God, that He is both human and divine, and that He is the Messiah? If the answer is “yes,” then do you give testimony to Jesus?
In the first reading we are told that the people of Jerusalem held the Apostles in esteem, but “none of the others dared to join them.” These events occurred in the Temple, in Solomon’s Portico, which was in the outer courts of the Temple complex where the Gentiles were allowed. More than ever, we are told, believers in the Lord were added to them. It is difficult to say whether or not these new believers were afraid to be seen with the Apostles, or if St. Luke is referring to a different group of people. Regardless, there were many who professed faith in Jesus, but few who were willing to give witness to that faith.
This is where the question becomes critical for us. I trust you were able to answer the first question about the divinity of our Lord in the affirmative. If He is God and He died and rose again so your sins could be forgiven and you could have access to eternal life with Jesus, then are you willing to be a witness to Jesus? The other side of this question is: are we embarrassed, are we afraid, or do we not actually believe in the divinity of Jesus?
These are some hard things to face, but we recognize that our Lord’s resurrection from the dead changed everything for the Apostles. But has it changed much of anything in us? Are we willing to suffer on behalf of the Name of Jesus? Every day in countries in Africa and Asia, Christians are being put to death because of their faith in Jesus. When we think of Jesus, when we are in the presence of the Holy Eucharist, can we say, “My Lord and my God?” If this is our faith, then we must be His witnesses in our words and in our way of life!
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
