Experiencing God - 257 Doubting Thomas

 

I’ve found that the journey through Holy Week beginning with the mass of the Lord’s Supper on Thursday, and ending with the Easter Vigil on Saturday can be a real Topsy Turvey ride. As we engage ourselves in reliving these Easter events, many emotions are aroused and we can get bounced around a bit. On Holy Thursday, we confidently embrace Jesus’ model for service to others through the washing of feet and the last supper. And then on Good Friday, we relive the cruelty of the rejection, torture and death of Jesus on the cross to finally to move into the hope, joy and celebration the resurrection event at the Easter Vigil and on Easter morning.  If you think this is an emotional roller coaster for us who are just replaying these events, imagine what it must have been like to those who experienced them in real time. One thing that I became more aware of this year is that when we dramatize these Easter events, we have the advantage of knowing the eventual outcome.  Those who experienced them in real time did not have that advantage.  In fact, for those followers who were closest to Jesus, it would probably be difficult to capture in words the trauma they experienced by these events.  Our Gospel reading today starts with these very people doing what we ourselves would do when faced with a disaster of such overwhelming proportions. They were huddling together, fearful of the perpetrators, sharing their grief and loss, and carrying the shame of wondering if they might not have done something more to prevent this tragedy. Without the appearances of the resurrected Christ that followed, it is unlikely that the Christian story, as we know it, would ever have happened as we understand it today.

In today’s gospel, we hear that Thomas was not present when these appearances began. We don’t know where he was, but it took some persuasion from the others before he would even meet with them. But it is obvious, if he did not go with them to experience the risen Christ himself, he would probably have continued live in doubt  since there would be no wounds of Jesus for him to see. There would be no profession of his changed faith: “My Lord and My God”. But he did go, and he saw and believed and it changed his life.  Because of his encounter with the Lord, he accepted Jesus’ great commission of spreading the Gospel to many places of the world including to the Parthians, Medes and Persians, and to be eventually martyred in India for doing so. Without the appearances, Peter and Andrew would probably have return to fishing, and James and John to their father Zebedee to take on what they had left behind some three years before. But the appearances of Jesus changed all that. With His appearances, they were all changed.  Three of the four I mentioned were eventually martyred for the cause of the Gospel; Andrew in Greece, Peter in Rome, James in Jerusalem. John the evangelist, would be imprisoned on the Island of Patmos.  For them and for the other witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection, their for their own selves were suddenly less important than sharing the Gospel of Christ which they did through their preaching and through their writings.

So with these appearances of the resurrected Christ, lives were changed, in fact the world was changed, and these events continued to influence the lives of people and societies throughout the centuries more than any other single event in human history.  Today, we are a part of that chain of events.
In the year 2000, Pope John Paul 11 designated this second Sunday of Easter as Divine Mercy Sunday.  He decided that immediately after Easter, when the Paschal mysteries were still fresh in peoples minds and hearts, it was a good opportunity for the church to reflect more deeply on God’s mercy manifested in the Resurrection of Jesus.  He noted that the resurrection of Jesus is the core of our faith. As we read in 1 Corinthians, without the resurrection of Jesus, there is no Christianity.  So Pope John Paul reinforces for the church that connection of God’s Divine Mercy with the transformational gift of Christ’s death and resurrection. They are one in the same.

So what is Divine Mercy?  The ordinary definition of mercy is the compassionate treatment of those in distress, especially when it’s within our power to punish or to harm. If someone has wronged us, and we are in a position to punish them for it, then to forgive is to show mercy. It is not as common in today’s world where suing or seeking retribution is looked upon as a sign of strength.  From the biblical sense, Divine Mercy, derived from the Latin ‘merced’ means “the price been paid”. So it relates directly to forgiveness, as Jesus continually taught in the Gospels.  If we each take the time to reflect upon this as Pope John Paul  intended, we can easily come up with many of our own personal stories of a time or situation where God extended his hand mercy to us. We all fall short of the glory of God. We all miss the mark. If God has extended mercy to us for our indiscretions, then we are called also to extend that same mercy to others.  

 

 

It is important to know that the reason why God extends His Divine mercy to us, and asks us to do likewise, is not because He feels sorry for us, or has pity on us.  It is because he wants to heal us, to transform us, to change us into the person that He intended for us to be in the first place. So change or transformation becomes the purpose. This transformation process is so evident in the relationship that existed between Jesus and the apostles. He connects with this rather rag tag group of people, invites them into a relationship, guides them, teaches them, heals them, sends them out. He never gives up on them.  And you can be sure, that He never gives up on us as well.  And even though they were a little slow off the mark at times, as we are often ourselves, Jesus teaches them that Kingdom of God cannot be found through a life of our own self rule, doing what only benefits ourselves, but by dying to ourselves through actions of love and service and mercy to others. Jesus not only teaches this to the apostles, but lived it out completely in His own life as witnessed by the unfolding events of Easter.  He does this by his own denial of self, and by his death and resurrection, paying the price for us. And then, appearing to the apostles, and sending His Holy Spirit so that we may be impowered to live that out in our  lives as well. 

So our transformation and God’s Divine Mercy found through forgiveness, are linked and inseparatable. In our first reading from Acts, we witness the fruits of this played out in the life of the infant Christian community: “The faithful devoted themselves to the Apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and prayers. Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done. All who believed were united together, and had all things in common.” 

I would like to conclude with a quote from St. Mother Teresa on her own wisdom about God’s action of Divine Mercy. It’s a little different. Perhaps, more of a call, of how to respond to difficult situations in our own life in Christian community. She says:

People may often seem unreasonable and self-centered; Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Giving the world the best you have, may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. 

Samaritan Woman at the Well - 256

 

There’s a story of a beggar who had been sitting by the side of the street for many many years. One day a stranger walked by: And the beggar, holding out his old baseball cap, mechanically mumbled: “Can you spare some change?”  “I have nothing to give you” said the stranger.  Then the stranger added: “What’s that you are sitting on”?  “Nothing” replied the beggar. “Just an old box. I have been sitting on it for as long as I can remember.” “Ever look inside?” asked the stranger. “No”, said the beggar.  What’s the point? There’s nothing in there.”  “Have a look inside,” insisted the stranger.  The beggar managed to pry open the lid.  With astonishment, disbelief, and elation, he saw that the box was filled with gold. 
Today, I am, in many respects, like this stranger who really has nothing much to give you, but inviting you to look inside.  Not inside any box, as in the story, but somewhere even closer: Inside yourself.  For it is only inside ourselves that we will find our true wealth.  This true wealth is not some material object like gold or some fleeting outward pleasure. If that is all we seek, then we will remain only beggars.  But our true wealth is that radiant joy of being, that unshakable peace that come from knowing Jesus in a deep and personal way.
Today, during this third weekend of Lent, you have just heard this rather lengthy Gospel we are all familiar with: Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. And in a sense, it is a story of a stranger, Jesus, inviting this woman to look inside to find her true treasure, which up to this time, remains hidden from her.

I’ve come to believe that we will never find this inner treasure that Jesus speaks about unless we first begin to seek it in a sincere way; until we begin to knock on the door of our hearts and invite it in, in prayer.  Otherwise, we only remain somewhat distracted by passing the events of life. I know this is true for myself, because when I am caught up in passing distractions, it is the times I feel most distant from God. But when I allow God to break through, it is then that I discover the treasure that has been there all the time. Sometimes we need someone to remind us of the importance of faith in our lives so that we may retain that unshakeable peace that comes from knowing Christ. 

And this is what Jesus is doing in our Gospel reading today.  He is taking the time to remind this Samaritan woman, a stranger to Him, that there is something in her life that she is missing, something worth searching for.  But first He must make that connection with her because she is very distracted by the things around her.  In making this connection, Jesus does not judge her, or remind her of her failings, but begins by letting her know that she too, despite her failings, is a Child of God.  Jesus invites her  to look inside, to claim this true treasure that is there but remained hidden from her view.  He does this by reminding her that “everyone who drink ordinary well water will become thirsty again.  But the one who drinks the water that He gives, will never be thirsty, and it will become like a spring within gushing to eternal life.”

 

 

The fact is, without God, we all thirst for something. Without God and that personal relationship with Christ, we all experience that sense of emptiness, and the more we try to fill this inner emptiness with those outer superficial things and events of life, the emptier we will feel. So as beggars, we must begin to look inside to discover that treasure that remains hidden from our view.  The Samaritan woman’s responds to Jesus: “Give me this water so that I too may never be thirsty again.” 

This story about Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well is one of the recommendation Gospel readings for the rite of Baptism.  For the many baptisms that I have celebrated over the last 40 years, this particular Gospel has been used almost exclusively to open a discussion on baptism with the parents.  I have found generally that most young couples have a sense of the importance of having their child baptized, but they do not have a good understanding as to why. They perhaps see it as the responsible thing that parents do for their children: But, most often, they fail to see the Sacrament of Baptism as a beginning step in on-going faith development for their child: That the outward signs of water, chrism, candles and white garments must be accompanied by an inward seeking of Jesus, asking Him to be present in the life of their child and in their own lives as well. So it is important that they hear Jesus’ petition to the Samaritan woman to receive this living water that he offers freely to all who ask. “If only you knew this gift that God is offering you, and who it is who is asking you for a drink. Then You would ask Him instead, and He will give you living water.”  

 

Those of you who are familiar the New Evangelization initiative in our Archdiocese of Halifax/Yarmouth know that this particularly Gospel reading is often referenced as the best scripture examples of a way to reach out to those who, for whatever reason, are separated from our faith and our church.  A few months ago, I mentioned to you about the three B’s of the New Evangelization or conversion to Christ. Belonging, Believing and Behavior. The first step, belonging, means making that connection. We invite another to be a part of what we are about. We do this simply, without judgement, accepting the other person as they are.  Jesus does this simply by asking the Samaritan woman to share with Him a cup of water. He opens a conversation with one to whom a Jewish person would not normally associate. This begins the development of trust.  Secondly, after making this connection, we move to the believing; the sharing of our own experience of faith, perhaps how our lives have grown and have been changed by our relationship with Christ. In our Gospel, Jesus gently enters into this dialog by inviting the Samaritan woman to look deeper, getting in touch with her own thirst for what is missing in her life. With this, she begins to see something in Jesus that she was now aware of before.

And thirdly, going deeper leads to a behavior change, a movement away from the surface of things, to a change of heart, and a discovery Christ’s presence within.  We see this change in the Samaritan woman. After encountering Jesus, she leaves her water jar behind, and returns to the village where she shares her experience of Jesus with the town folks. And invites them to come and meet Jesus themselves.

The prayer booklet we are currently reviewing in our New Evangelization group on Thursday evenings is called: “We have come to Adore Him.”  I would like to conclude with a brief quote from Pope Benedict from this booklet.  He writes: “In our life with Jesus, in our life in prayer, we don’t simply find God; we also find ourselves.” What is this Christian life and mission really about. It is about a God who is infinite in His love for us, and who wants to share with us the richness this love.  And in finding ourselves, we receive and know that we are infinitely loved by God.  

I noticed that our parish has developed and is proposing a new mission statement which for me speaks of this.

  Our Mission is to be a welcoming community of Jesus’ disciples who journey together in right Faith, certain Hope, and live out of His love in word and deed.   Let us pray for the grace to see this come about in our church and our lives,