April 16, 2023: Second Sunday of Easter, Cycle A Acts 2:42-47 Psalm 118:2-4,13-15,22-24(1) 1 Peter 1:3-9 John 20:19-31 “Do Not Touch Me … Put Your Hand Into My Side” A reflection by Ann Marie Szpakowska “Footprints” by Edwin Hawkins They led him to Bethany. That’s where He stayed. They led Him to Gethsemane. That’s where He prayed. They led Him to Calvary. Salvation complete. Whoa….. Surely if I follow my life will be sweet, saved by the prints of His wounded feet. Saved by his wound feet. (Listen to the 1977 recording here) Today’s Gospel reading tells of Thomas’ post resurrection meeting with the risen Savior. In scouring the New Testament, we find Thomas mentioned in the several listings of Jesus’ disciples, none of which are complete. He is among the inner circle sometimes simply referred as “The Twelve.” The first appearance of Thomas, where he is given a voice, is in the story of Lazarus’ resurrection. However, we often miss it because John 11:1-45 is rarely proclaimed in full and we do not hear Thomas in verse 16 say to the disciples, “Let us go so that we may die with him.” If this is what was remembered about Thomas what moniker would he have been given? Courageous? Faithful? Instead, in John 20:19-31, his legacy is sealed as “doubting Thomas.” We’re told Thomas was not present at Jesus’ first appearance to the disciples who were behind locked doors in fear. Jesus greets them with “Peace be with you.” Mary Magdalene had brought them the news, “I have seen the Lord,” yet she herself had recognized Jesus as her Teacher, not by sight, but by the sound of his voice. She heard Jesus say her name, “Mary.” Did the disciples believe her? Although her title as “Apostle to the Apostles” may point to such belief, the last 2,000 years of debate of Mary Magdalene’s life and authority in the Early Church underscores our Church’s patriarchalblindness and sin of misogyny. John 20:24 begins the story Thomas’ seeing Jesus resurrected. Jesus told the disciples that Thomas’s belief depended on him seeing the nail prints in Jesus’ hand and wound in his side. Jesus invites Thomas to probe his hands with his fingers and side with his hand. Some preachers suggest that Thomas did so, yet the text does not indicate it. Verse 28 records Thomas’s profession of faith, “My Lord and My God.” These are the same words the Roman Catholic Church encourages believers to whisper at the Elevation of Jesus’ Body and Blood at the consecration during Mass. Numerous commentaries have attempted to explain why, in John 20: 17, Jesus says to Mary Magdalene, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to my Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”The word “hold” is sometimes translated as “touch” or “cling.” However, in John 20:27, Jesus tells Thomas to touch him. The eight intervening days had not changed the reality that Jesus had not ascended to be with God. Some have proposed that Thomas’ faith required a tactile confirmation whereas Mary Magdalene’s faith needed an auditory confirmation and so Jesus met each of them in their need. I would suggest that faith for each of us is founded on our corporality and Jesus’ incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection. All our senses play a part and become a bridge to our belief systems and spiritual lives. Faith cannot merely be mental ascent to human dogma, doctrine, or theology, for “who has known the mind of God?” (Roman 11:34). Yet we also know God invites all people to Eternal Life, to see God face to face. Jesus’ resurrected body is the preeminent sign of this Divine promise. |
