FIRST READING: Acts 5: 12-16. Many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high honor. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and pallets, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.
SECOND READING: Revelation 1: 9-13; 17-19. I John, your brother, who share with you in Jesus the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book.” Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden girdle round his breast. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades. Now write what you see, what is and what is to take place hereafter.”
GOSPEL: John 20:19-31. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Now Jesus did many other things in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
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The growth of the new Christian community is marked by its acceptance by the common people and by the opposition of the leaders. In other words, its was accepted by the powerless and loathed by the ones in power. In this it was like unto Jesus himself, and a sure sign of its fidelity to him. Thus the genuine character of the Church is revealed. It is the home of the helpless, the excluded, browbeaten, the outcasts. The martyred Jesus is resurrected in the community of the downtrodden.
John uses a totally different language to express the same proclamation. He uses the style of apocalyptic literature which became very common among the Jews in the last two centuries BCE. It indulges in a lot of symbolic language and imagery, including visions, mostly borrowed from the Old Testament prophetic books. John proclaims that Jesus and also his community, though apparently all done and dead, is alive, vibrant and flourishing. This is not the community of the powerful but the community of the oppressed.
As the Gospel announces, the Christian community’s commitment is not one of words but of deeds. It is a hands-on community. Indeed, truely blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe, for this is not how things normally go. People will believed because they see, concretely and in real fact, the hope of the demoralised and exploited fulfilled in Jesus’ community.
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