Thomas and Us

Gospel: John 20: 19-31

Thomas gets an unfortunate raw deal from the tradition because of this Gospel story.  Yes, he doubts even when the other apostles have stated they have seen the risen Lord.  However, if any of the other men had been in his place, the evidence suggests that they likely would be just as skeptical as Thomas had been.  No doubt this fact partially explains the gentleness with which Jesus employs in his interaction with Thomas in this scene.

Lest we judge Thomas in our smugness, by now we should realize that the Gospels are not designed as apologetic texts.  They are, rather, a vehicle for our own examination of our life.  We have been like the disciples and Pharisees throughout the Gospels in our own lives.  We have doubted, denied, betrayed, judged others, excluded others from access to Jesus, argued over who is more important, and everything else we see in disciples, Pharisees, and all others who interact with Jesus. 

The challenge of the Gospels is in recognizing ourselves in these various failures, and then responding to that awareness in the appropriate way.  Will we be like Peter or Thomas, weeping over our sins, or saying "My Lord and my God!" Or will we be hard of heart and insist there is nothing within us that needs change or reform, that it is others who need to change?  The Pharisee reads to find proof texts to justify themselves.  The authentic disciple seeks to know themselves and the Lord more clearly. 

The Synodal Way

Gospel: Mark 16: 9-15

Today's Gospel portion summarizes the various failures of the apostolic band in their disbelief.  It recounts their failure in believing the women, as well as the two men of Emmaus.  The passage notes how Jesus rebuked them severely for their refusal to listen to others in their experience of the risen Jesus.  We might surmise that these men may have refused to believe because they could not accept that Jesus would appear to these others and not to them.

In our own day we find similar patterns of disbelief.  A certain group with specific genitalia who are convinced of their ontologically changed status is convinced that God speaks only to them, that they need not listen to the experiences of others.  All truth is possessed by this elite group of sacerdotal men.  It is here where is found resistance to the idea of a synodal church, a church that listens and values the experiences of all her members.

The resurrection accounts are a foundational basis for the synodal way as a model for the church.  For it is within the experiences of all God's people that we encounter the risen Jesus, not only in the first Easter experience but in our own time.  It is only in listening to the experiences of all God's people that we arrive at a fuller and richer picture of the risen Lord and how that presence is at work in the world at all times and all places.   

A Second Re-Creation

Gospel: John 21: 1-14

At the resurrection of Jesus we saw how John recreated the drama of Eden in various images to suggest that the death and resurrection of Jesus is our re-creation and restoration back to our original innocence before the fall.  In today's Gospel portion, John again recreates two scenes and molds them into one story in order to demonstrate the same idea of  restoration and renewal that takes place in an encounter with the risen Jesus and the ritual meal.

First, we find ourselves reliving the multiplication of loaves with the miraculous catch of fish, wherein the disciples recognize the presence of the Lord.  Then, when they arrive on shore, they find Jesus preparing a meal of fish and bread on a charcoal fire, the very place of Peter's denials on the night of Jesus' arrest.  The meal is a Eucharistic one, a meal designed to restore the broken relationship of the disciples who abandoned him and the one who denied him.  

It is only after the meal is finished when Peter and Jesus then have the exchange of love where Jesus asks Peter three times if he loved him.  The meal has provided the way forward in the relationships. It has enabled the healing to proceed fully.  Imagine if we regarded the Eucharist in the same way rather than some prize for the perfect.  The very power of the Eucharist is the fact that it is the vehicle of reconciliation, not a reward for it.