Road to Emmaus Second Sunday of Easter

Apr 15, 2009

First Reading – Acts 4:32-35

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24

Second Reading – 1 Jn. 5:1-6

Gospel Reading – Jn. 20:19-31

 

In the Gospel reading from John for the Second Sunday of Easter, otherwise known as Mercy Sunday, we have three distinct sections:

 

1.      Jesus’ conferring of peace, the Holy Spirit and the power to forgive sins.

2.      Thomas’ encounter with Jesus.

3.      John tells us why he’s writing.

 

 Jesus confers peace

 

On the evening of the very day of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Apostles, except Thomas, have locked themselves up because they fear the Jews (cf. Jn. 20:19). They unquestionably still think that what happened to Jesus might yet happen to them.

 

However, Jesus comes into this locked room and says, “Peace be with you” (Jn. 20:19). The Hebrew words Jesus uses are the standard Hebrew greeting, shalom aleichem. However, shalom has far more meaning than the English word peace.

 

Typically in English peace means an absence of war or conflict. Shalom, however, involves more than that. One can have shalom even in the midst of conflict.

 

For a deeper understanding we must recognize the meaning of what God says through the prophet Isaiah: “For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my mercy shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord who has compassion on you” (54:10).

 

First, there is a confirmation of what has already been said. There can be peace in the midst of conflict. The language of mountains departing and hills being removed indicates conflict. Nevertheless, peace will not be removed.

 

Second, there is a connection between mercy and peace, racham and shalom. The word racham can be translated as mercy or compassion. As you may already be aware, compassion means “to suffer with another.” In the context of the Gospel reading Jesus is having mercy, or compassion, on those who are locked up for fear, by greeting, and giving, them shalom.  

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Third, in the quotation from Isaiah we hear the language of a “covenant of peace,” which helps us understand more fully what shalom is. To be in covenant with someone is to have a God-given familial bond with another. Covenant makes family. In this case Jesus has established the new and everlasting covenant with the Apostles at the Last Supper. They are in a covenant of peace, so he says, “Peace be with you.”

 

Also, shalom means “to be complete or fulfilled.” How does Jesus give them this peace or fulfillment? By breathing the Holy Spirit upon them, thus giving them a taste of what is coming at Pentecost. Therefore, to have true peace is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity.

 

Jesus confers the Holy Spirit and the power to forgive sins

 

Jesus then repeats, “Peace be with you” (Jn. 20:21). Then Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you” (Jn. 20:21). At that time, “he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’” (Jn. 20:22-23).

 

Jesus has been sent by the Father to confer mercy, compassion, peace and fulfillment. So, too Jesus sends the Apostles to confer mercy, compassion, peace and fulfillment. How? Through the forgiveness of sins by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Implicit in all of this is Jesus’ forgiveness of them for abandoning him at his time of suffering and death.)

 

The Father sent the Son for the forgiveness of sins. The angel said to Joseph, “he will save his people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). Now the Son sends the Apostles for the forgiveness of sins in precisely the same way the Father sent him. The Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary at the Incarnation, now the Holy Spirit is breathed upon the Apostle as a foretaste of the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit that will come upon the at Pentecost.

 

Jesus conferred mercy and peace upon them as they are gathered together in fear. The Apostles are to confer mercy and peace to all who come to them with humble and contrite hearts, confessing their sins.

 

This brings to mind the prayer of absolution after one has confessed their sins, “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a sacrament of mercy, compassion, peace and fulfillment.

 

Jesus and Thomas

 

When this occurred Thomas was not with them, so the other Apostles with much excitement tell him, “We have seen the Lord” (Jn. 20:25). He did not believe them. The only way he was going to believe was by seeing and touching the wounds of Christ’s crucifixion.

Pope Benedict XVI notes for our consideration, “…From these words emerges the conviction that Jesus can now be recognized by his wounds rather than by his face. Thomas holds that the signs that confirm Jesus’ identity are now above all his wounds, in which he reveals to us how much he loved us. In this the Apostle is not mistaken.”

 

A week later Jesus appears again, this time with Thomas present, and once again says, “Peace be with you” (Jn. 20:26). Jesus says to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing” (Jn. 20:27). Thomas’ response is one of the clearest references to the fact that Jesus is God, he exclaims, “My Lord and my God!” (Jn. 20:28).

 

St. Augustine has said of this, “Thomas saw and touched the man, and acknowledged the God whom he neither saw nor touched; but by the means of what he saw and touched, he now put far away from him every doubt, and believed the other.”

 

Jesus responds to Thomas’ declaration of faith with a message to us all: “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (Jn. 20:29). This is certainly significant for most Christians who do not see, yet believe. We don’t need to see miracles and visions for our faith to be solid. It is better for us if we don’t see these things, for this we receive a divine blessing.

 

Pope Benedict gives three reasons why the account of Thomas is important. He says, “First, because it comforts us in our insecurity; second, because it shows us that every doubt can lead to an outcome brighter than any uncertainty; and, lastly, because the words of Jesus addressed to him remind us of the true meaning of mature faith and encourage us to persevere, despite the difficulty, along our journey of adhesion to him.”

 

John’s tells us why he’s writing

 

John, in the last part of this Sunday’s Gospel reading, tells us why he has recounted all that he has in his Gospel. It is so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31).