Doubt is a perennial reality of the human experience and therefore a part of the Christian life. And in today’s Gospel we see that doubt has been part of the discipleship experience since the very beginning. I believe that when we experience doubt it may well mean that we are really engaging in and wrestling with the deepest realities of the Christian mystery.
I think that Thomas gets a bit of a bad rap, remembered down through the centuries as “doubting Thomas”. I say “a bad rap” because we forget that Thomas is one of the very first human beings to ever hear of the resurrection of Christ! How would you have responded to the very first stories of those who claimed to have seen Jesus, alive...Risen from the dead?!
Imagine what it must have been like for the first disciples. They had pinned all of their hopes and dreams for a new and different future on this one called Jesus, and then they saw him executed by the Romans, dead and laid to rest in a tomb. All their hopes hung on that cross and seemed to die with him.
Then, in the midst of their sorrow, fear and trembling, Jesus appears to them and imparts to them “his peace.” The peace of the Risen Christ! This deep and abiding peace was to calm and fill the space of their fear and trembling. And then he breaths on them and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift was to embolden them as he sent them out into the world to proclaim the Good News that death had been defeated, our sins will be forgiven, and even though our bodies die, we will live forever!
The peace of Christ is an integral part of Christian life and of the Easter story. This peace is like no other peace. It is Christ’s peace. It is a transformative peace that flows forth from the Risen Christ...directly from God to us.
In this Easter season let us open our hearts and minds to the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling with in us. This Spirit is calling us and emboldening us to proclaim the peace of the Risen Christ to all the world.
Have I accepted Christ’s peace in my own life? How can I show forth Christ’s peace in my daily life? How can I share it with the world around me?
May the peace of the Risen Christ be with you always,
Fr. Tim
I think that Thomas gets a bit of a bad rap, remembered down through the centuries as “doubting Thomas”. I say “a bad rap” because we forget that Thomas is one of the very first human beings to ever hear of the resurrection of Christ! How would you have responded to the very first stories of those who claimed to have seen Jesus, alive...Risen from the dead?!
Imagine what it must have been like for the first disciples. They had pinned all of their hopes and dreams for a new and different future on this one called Jesus, and then they saw him executed by the Romans, dead and laid to rest in a tomb. All their hopes hung on that cross and seemed to die with him.
Then, in the midst of their sorrow, fear and trembling, Jesus appears to them and imparts to them “his peace.” The peace of the Risen Christ! This deep and abiding peace was to calm and fill the space of their fear and trembling. And then he breaths on them and gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit. This gift was to embolden them as he sent them out into the world to proclaim the Good News that death had been defeated, our sins will be forgiven, and even though our bodies die, we will live forever!
The peace of Christ is an integral part of Christian life and of the Easter story. This peace is like no other peace. It is Christ’s peace. It is a transformative peace that flows forth from the Risen Christ...directly from God to us.
In this Easter season let us open our hearts and minds to the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling with in us. This Spirit is calling us and emboldening us to proclaim the peace of the Risen Christ to all the world.
Have I accepted Christ’s peace in my own life? How can I show forth Christ’s peace in my daily life? How can I share it with the world around me?
May the peace of the Risen Christ be with you always,
Fr. Tim
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