April 19

Some sixty years later, another small community, also followers of Jesus, must have been experiencing similar emotions. Their relationship with their Jewish neighbors had been cut off, they felt isolated and unsure of the future. Was this suffering meant to be? How long would it go on? In response to such questions, the evangelist John assures his community that the spiritual journey does include pain, pain that leaves its mark. 
 
In today’s Gospel from John, Christ greets his disciples, then shows them the marks of his crucifixion. His next action is to commission them, effectively sending them into the world to endure the same brutality he had endured. Christ implicitly asks them to respond to the woundedness and violence in the world with forgiveness, as he has. They are to be agents of peace and forgiveness in a world marked by fear and brokenness.  
 
Thomas is the last to see the scars on Christ’s hands and side - and to realize that being sent will entail bearing pain in his own hands, his own side, his own heart. Yet Thomas and the others did respond to Christ’s words, to his challenge.  And it seems the disciples experience a resurrection of their own in Christ’s Presence. They are able to say “Yes” to a new life, to walking through the world manifesting the forgiveness and peace they had received. May we do likewise.



                                                                                         by Carolyn Goddard