Scripture of the Week

The faithful all used to meet by common consent in the Portico of Solomon. No one else ever dared to join them, but the people were loud in their praise and the numbers of men and women who came to believe in the Lord increased steadily. So many signs and wonders were worked among the people at the hands of the apostles that the sick were even taken out into the streets and laid on beds and sleeping-mats in the hope that at least the shadow of Peter might fall across some of them as he went past. People even came crowding in from the towns round about Jerusalem, bringing with them their sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and all of them were cured.

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 117:2-4. 22-27. R. v.1

(R.) Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,

his love is everlasting.

(R.) Alleluia!

Second Reading – Revelation 1:9-13, 17-19

A reading from the book of the Apocalypse

I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever.

My name is John, and through our union in Jesus I am your brother and share your sufferings, your kingdom, and all you endure. I was on the island of Patmos for having preached God’s word and witnessed for Jesus; it was the Lord’s day and the Spirit possessed me, and I heard a voice behind me, shouting like a trumpet, ‘Write down all that you see in a book.’ I turned round to see who had spoken to me, and when I turned I saw seven golden lamp-stands and, surrounded by them, a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle.

When I saw him, I fell in a dead faint at his feet, but he touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid; it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One. I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld. Now write down all that you see of present happenings and things that are still to come.’

Gospel Acclamation

John 20:29

Alleluia, alleluia!

You believe in me, Thomas, because you have seen me;

happy those who have not seen me, but still believe!

Alleluia!

Gospel – John 20:19-31

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

After eight days Jesus came in and stood among them.

In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.

‘As the Father sent me,
so am I sending you.’

After saying this he breathed on them and said:

‘Receive the Holy Spirit.
For those whose sins you forgive,
they are forgiven;
for those whose sins you retain,
they are retained.’

Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’ Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him:

‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.’

There were many other signs that Jesus worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing this you may have life through his name.

Gospel Reflection

Living in “the Eighth Day”, the Time of the New Creation.
Reflection on the Gospel-Easter 2C
(John 20:19-31)

The liturgical readings and prayers for each Sunday between Easter and Pentecost invite us into different movements of the one great symphony of resurrection faith. This weekend we celebrate the second of the eight Sundays of the Easter Season. The first scene in today’s gospel has the disciples hiding behind closed doors “for fear” of those who had handed Jesus over to be executed by the Roman authorities. Again, it is the first day of the week, evoking the first day of creation. Jesus appears among them, offers a greeting of peace, and tells them that he has been sent by God, his “Father”. They receive from Jesus the gift of the Holy Spirit and are sent in their turn to bring peace, to mediate the forgiveness of God through the power of the Spirit. What Jesus is sent to do, the disciples are likewise sent to do.

This story invites us to place ourselves in the shoes of the earliest disciples. It invites us to receive the gift of the Spirit, to emerge from behind the doors that close us in on ourselves and that prevent us from rising above the fear of reprisals in our pursuit of justice and peace. It also invites us to ponder the consequences of forgiving on the one hand and of not forgiving on the other. To forgive another is to release that person from the burden of guilt and shame. Forgiveness opens up the possibility of healing. To refuse forgiveness or to “retain” the sins of another is to leave that person unforgiven and unhealed. We might also consider the consequences of refusing to open ourselves to forgiveness. Those who refuse to forgive others have often failed to forgive themselves for their own shortcomings.

The second and third scenes in today’s gospel focus on Thomas who was not with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared in their midst. Thomas seems to trust only his own first-hand experience. We all know people like Thomas. They test our patience because they seem to lack imagination. They then make big statements when they come around to understanding what everyone else already knows. If we think, however, that those who hear from the outset are any better than Thomas, we need to note that the doors are still closed eight days later! The simple fact of knowing has not dispelled their fears. We all need time to grasp what it means to say that Christ has been raised and, even then, we will not understand fully. Biblical scholar, Margaret Daly-Denton notes that, in the Jewish tradition, “the eighth day symbolized the aeon to come”. Like John’s community we live in “the eighth day”, in resurrection time, the time of the new creation. Easter faith invites us to keep living into that reality and to break through the human-constructed barriers, even as we recognise that the full realisation of the new creation belongs to an unknown future.

Sr Veronica Lawson rsm

© The scriptural quotations are taken from the Jerusalem Bible, published and copyright 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday & Co Inc, and used by permission of the publishers. The English translation of the Psalm Responses, the Alleluia and Gospel Verses, and the Lenten Gospel Acclamations, and the Titles, Summaries, and Conclusion of the Readings, from the Lectionary for Mass © 1997, 1981, 1968, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved.