By Fr. Nathan Mamo, S.T.L.

Acts 5:12-16 Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19 John 20:19-31

Today’s Gospel text is John’s account of one of the Risen Jesus’ appearances on the actual day of resurrection. Remember that theologically, the Paschal Event (the suffering, death and resurrection taken together) has effected a radical and indescribable change in Jesus which is appreciated only gradually by the disciples who have met him after his rising. Pre-resurrection, he appeared to be much the same as anyone else to casual human perception, with the exception of being an occasional wonder worker (aka miracle maker), an exorcist, and an authoritative, prophetic speaker. Post-resurrection, Jesus was not easily recognized, not bound by physical laws of time and space, and otherwise quite astounding to those disciples who thought they had known him before.

Like the Solemn Feast of the Nativity, Easter is a festival with a liturgical Octave of days by which to extend the occasion. The Gospel lessons for daily Masses between Easter Sunday and the 2^nd Sunday of Easter each proclaim a resurrection appearance of Jesus and reveal gradually increasing insight on the part of his disciples into what they had experienced. The 2^nd Sunday of Easter is the Octave Day (the 8^th Day) of Easter. The two Sundays are liturgically connected by means of a related pair of resurrection appearances remembered in John. The first occurred on Easter Sunday night and the second, what might be called a “follow-up” appearance, happened a week later.

The Acts of the Apostles is the complementary volume by the same evangelist-author who composed the Gospel According to Luke. Produced in the 70s to 80s AD, this scroll records the remembrances of and lore about some of the events – including signs and wonders – worked by some early Christians, who themselves had been eye-witnesses to the Risen Jesus. It covers selected events from the occasion of the Jesus’ Ascension until Paul’s arrival at Rome, a period spanning nearly four decades. Today’s text from Acts is a summary paragraph connecting, on the one hand, stories of how apostolic Christians practiced their faith, and, on the other, how some of the more adversarial religious leaders in Jerusalem reacted defensively to the proclamation of the primitive Gospel. The summary is useful as an indicator of how the third generation of Christians remembered and imagined how the Gospel had been heard in those earliest days of evangelization. Salvation and life were what the Gospel promised; occasional healings were the evidence which helped make the Gospel message attractive. Salvation, life and healing made a successful combination. What do Christians today offer to those outside the Gospel fellowship? Is the Gospel message attractive and if so, how? Is our behavior as a Church, individually and collectively, an effective invitation by which to engage fully life’s messiness with Gospel compassion and hope as our foundations?

The second lessons for the Sundays of the Easter Season will all be excerpted from the Book of the Revelation of John, also known as the Apocalypse of John. This book is called an apocalypse because it purports to reveal truths revealed from the next world to it’s human author, a certain John of Patmos (to be confused with neither John the Apostle nor John the Evangelist). The otherworldly being spoke to and guided John through a series of visions while he was caught up in an ecstatic trance. That meant John was technically “out of his right mind” which explains some of the fantastic and unimaginable creatures and events he believed he saw and heard. Indeed, this was a mystical experience of the highest magnitude. In ancient times such uncritical (i.e., unverifiable) assertions were taken as direct revelation from God if the mystic was a credible person and claimed them to be so. We are today much more naturally critical and skeptical, and rightly so. Some fundamentalist Christians accept many of these visions and images as fact and reality in their unsophisticated and over-simplistic approaches to religion, scripture, God and faith. The Catholic Church accepts these visionary assertions neither uncritically nor literally, but as terms of hope in times of trial. These are fantastic ways of asserting and professing the Gospel message of confidence in God’s Salvation: peace, love, forgiveness, mercy, justice, joy and profound goodness. We believe Christ and the early Church proclaimed these themes enthusiastically. We find them today somewhat terrifying (in the sense of terrorizing), but the original audience probably found them consoling examples of God’s saving power over, and divine judgement against, their persecutors in their very harsh times and places.

Today’s second reading is a weaving of parts of the introduction of John’s book, describing his ecstatic trance’s circumstance and setting. He imagined that he was meeting the Risen Lord Jesus in imperial tones, as if Christ was the emperor of the entire universe, both physical and spiritual. The message to John was “do not be afraid of evil.” In that dominant tone, the entire book was meant to proclaim victorious hope to all believers. Even today, this book ought not inspire fear, but rather hope that Christ has overcome all evil, even the most repulsive imaginable. To use passages from this book to inspire fear or to manipulate behavior goes against the very Gospel it purports to proclaim.

The Gospel lesson is John’s account of two Resurrection appearances, on both the original Easter Sunday and a week later, a span of eight days. Thomas was the disciple in John 13 who had challenged Jesus after the Last Supper when he said to them, “You know where I am going!” Thomas had been absent from Easter Sunday’s appearance. Much has been made of the story of Thomas’ skepticism over the reports of Jesus’ Resurrection; we need not repeat that here. However, with the intent to provoke our critical faculties, was not Thomas really wise to hesitate in accepting the report of Resurrection? After all, Peter and the others had not received the news easily when Mary Magdalene first reported the tomb empty on Easter morning. Resurrection is an idea which was as strange and unlikely in those days as it is today. We still wrestle with the mystery. Note, Resurrection does not mean resuscitation or revivification. In the Gospels, those brought back to life by Jesus after natural deaths are usually not called “resurrected” for they went back to their old lives unchanged and eventually died again (see about Lazarus in John 11; Jairus’ daughter in Mark 5:21-43; the son of the Widow of Nain in Luke 7:11-17). Resurrection is a mystery which makes sense only (!) from the perspective of a balanced religious faith, which renders mortality no longer final. To be Resurrected means to have conquered death, to die never again. The Risen One lives life anew! Resurrection – before we experience it personally – is a metaphor for the most ultimate and important kind of hope humanly imaginable: that life has meaning, makes sense, and does not merely end with death. We Christians use other words and phrases to approach such hope from different perspectives: the kingdom of God, eternal life, salvation, heaven, paradise, the New Jerusalem, etc. Frankly, faith in resurrection is most practical when it makes a positive impact on believers who in turn live their lives in ever healthier, more conscientious, balanced, and wise terms. Christians who only occasionally think about the next life might easily be labeled amateurs and near-believers. But, Christians who engage life fully – that is, those who actively embrace the Gospel thoughtfully, generously, joyfully, and with all their hearts – these disciples of Jesus Christ make life worth living because they are thankful to God for the hope which the Gospel faith has instilled in them. They share a humane faith with those around them. Such is the practical power of the Great Easter Alleluia!

Christ is Risen! He is truly Risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!