Today’s Gospel account reveals the two sides of Christ’s love. He mercifully loves us wherever he finds us, even in our sin, but he loves us too much to leave us there and thus calls us to a higher standard.

The Gospel recounts Jesus’ first appearance to his disciples after the Resurrection. One of the first things Jesus does is to show them the wounds in his hands and side. These wounds are the effects of sin. The disciples realize their own sinfulness when they see the risen Lord.

But Jesus doesn’t come just to show the disciples the effects of sin. He also tells them, “Peace be with you.” In the ancient Jewish world “peace” didn’t mean just a calm feeling, but it described right relationship and friendship. In coming to meet his friends for the first time since they abandoned him on Good Friday, Jesus not only shows them his wounds, but he speaks words of comfort and forgiveness.

These are the two sides of Christ’s love: He comes to show us the truth of our sin and its consequences, but he also comes with mercy and forgiveness. He comes to offer “peace.” The place where we experience these two aspects of Christ’s love most profoundly is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. We might be reminded of this sacrament when Jesus tells the apostles that as the Father has sent him, so he now sends them. Jesus was sent by the Father for the forgiveness of sins, and now he is sending his apostles, enabled by the Holy Spirit, to participate in this ministry of forgiveness. Our priests and bishops continue this ministry in the Sacrament of Reconciliation as the successors of the apostles. Are you ready to avail yourself of both sides of Jesus’ love?

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1st Reading Reflection

Acts 5:12-16

It’s hard to imagine the kind of fevered atmosphere that surrounded the apostolic community of believers in those days after the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus and the Pentecost that followed. “Many signs and wonders” are attributed to the apostles. Just as Jesus cured all who came to him, the apostles cured many of unclean spirits or disease. Seldom in human history is God’s power displayed so evidently.

It’s telling that Luke uses a phrase that suggests the unity of the body of believers in Christ when he says, “great numbers of men and women were added to them.” He doesn’t say that they joined the community or that enrollment increased, but that the Lord added. When the Church grows Christ grows, until, in the words of St. Paul, Christ comes to full stature in us at the end of time (Ephesians 4:11-16).

In the Church’s infancy she needed a special display of divine power to aid her mission of evangelizing the world. And at certain times and places, God has seen fit to make his power seen and felt in order to draw humanity closer to him. What’s so visibly evident in certain times for particular reasons is always invisibly present in the Church. The Church is Christ’s body extended through space and time.

2nd Reading Reflection

Revelation 1:9-11a, 12-13, 17-19

The Liturgy is the place where we relate to ourselves the saving acts of God recounted in the Scriptures and use that recounting as an act of worship. To Catholic eyes that are familiar with the outlines of the Liturgy, Revelation discloses a liturgical format; it’s both a liturgy and liturgical. Two specific clues to this can be found in our reading this week.

First, we’re told that John’s vision takes place on the “Lord’s day,” the term used to describe Sunday, the day for Christian worship. Second, the first thing John sees are seven lampstands of gold, which any Jew of the first century A.D. would’ve recognized as being part of the Jerusalem Temple’s furnishings. So the first two things this reading tells us are that John is in a time for worship (Sunday) and a place of worship (the heavenly Temple).

John, who often looked upon the human face of Jesus, falls in holy fear before the divine face of Jesus. And yet Jesus assures John that there’s no reason to fear death because he’s Life itself. We enter into that awesome presence, his real presence, in the Holy Eucharist, in the divine liturgy of the Mass.

Gospel Reflection

John 20:19-31

As a Church we’re present on Easter morning to witness the manifestation of the risen glory of Jesus Christ. We share the joy and recognition of St. Mary Magdalene and that of the apostles to whom she acts as an apostle of the Resurrection. But, just as we’re represented collectively as a Church in the characters of the Magdalene and the apostles, we’re also absent and remain doubting on that first Easter day in the person of Thomas.

The Second Sunday of Easter could be called Thomas’ Easter. He represents that part of us that holds out against faith, relentlessly asking for proof, for confirmation. Thomas is a particularly good model for our age. He demands an empirical, tangible demonstration that Jesus is risen in the flesh.

In John’s Gospel, seeing is believing. John seems to emphasize the evidence that sight supplies to the identity of the Lord Jesus. Sight and blindness are metaphors for enlightenment and sin. So there’s tension between the evidence that Jesus gives us and our human insistence that he continuously reinforce our faith with signs. The Catholic conception of belief has always respected both our human need to be shown the truth and our human need for the faith that perfects our reason. The Church respects both because Jesus respected both.

DISCUSSION:

The presenter, Edward Sri, discusses the two sides of Christ’s love.

• What are these two sides, and how do we see Jesus demonstrating both of them in today’s Gospel reading?
• In what ways do you see Jesus confronting you with both his truth and his mercy in your own life?
• How do you commonly react to being confronted with the truth of sin?
• How do you commonly react to being confronted with God’s mercy?

PRAY & MEDIATE:

RESOLUTION: Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation we have direct access to the mission of forgiveness which the Father gave to Jesus and which Jesus shared with the apostles. Make plans to go to Confession as soon as you can. In preparation, prayerfully ask God to reveal any hidden areas of sin in your life and help you to make a good confession.
 

Reflections reprinted with permission from  Opening the Word at Formed.org .
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