2nd Sunday of Easter / Divine Mercy Sunday. Today’s readings: Acts 4,32-35; 1 John 5,1-6; John 20,19-31.
Hard-headed, belligerent, undependable and unhealthily ambitious were the disciples Jesus had to deal with during his few years of ministry. The agonising passion he endured for all did not change them much. If anything, it accentuated their unfaithfulness and cowardice.
After the resurrection, we find them confused and disheartened, ready to throw in the towel on those idyllic and amazing moments they had spent with the poet of Nazareth who spoke about the lilies of the fields, gave sight to the blind, brought dead people back to life, and spread the aroma of heaven all around him. One of them, Thomas, even seemed to keep his distance from the community in more ways than one.
Caravaggio’s depiction of today’s Gospel scene was executed in his typically raw and unceremonious fashion, being devoid of the kind of piety that characterised most Renaissance paintings. Jesus holds Thomas’s hand and guides it towards his side, such that his straightened finger deeply penetrates the open wound of the Lord, a sure reminder of the long lance that pierced his side not much earlier. An incredulous Thomas gazes in amazement. His “faith” now rested not on the prophetic words of Jesus about his eventual resurrection, nor on the assertion of the overjoyed community that had seen the Risen One, but on his own sensory experience mediated through sight and touch.
This was the moment when Thomas had to have doubt about his doubts and lay them to rest once and for all. He was not the first one to do so, for countless others transitioned from a state of unbelief to one marked by an encounter with the Risen Lord who shone upon their life and gave a wholly new meaning to their existence.
The risen Jesus becomes visible, gives his disciples peace instead of a rebuke, and breathes his Spirit upon them, thereby empowering them to forgive sins in his name
These past years I have been deeply touched by the witness of Alexei Navalny who strove for righteousness and justice in his native Russia. His very legitimate cause was all the more strengthened when he became a believer. Whatever Karl Marx meant by his statement that faith is the opium of the people (in his A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right), Navalny proved that religion is anything but something that merely attenuates your sorrows.
Faith motivates you to become a more determined activist in your fight for what is right. The words of Jesus in the Gospel not only inspired and empowered him, but also gave him a more solid justification for his tireless work in favour of his country. It is heartening to learn that in a May 2021 Easter message posted on the social media through his team, Navalny said, “I congratulate everyone with the best feast according to the tradition: believers (which I now am), unbelievers (which I was), and militant atheists (which I was too).”
In the Gospel account, Thomas gives us much food for thought on where we stand with our faith. However, though all this is important indeed, let Thomas not steal the show. We must marvel firstly at the risen Jesus himself who becomes visible, gives his disciples peace instead of a rebuke, and breathes his Spirit upon them, thereby empowering them to forgive sins in his name.
Today the Church celebrates Divine Mercy Sunday, not Human Doubting Sunday! Jesus appears precisely to impart this gift and this mission. Many might not doubt the resurrection, but may wonder whether Jesus would truly forgive them. What does a resurrection, that happened 2,000 years ago, of someone whose disciples claimed was divine, have to do with my sin? It does. And how!
Jesus’s wounds touched by Thomas were not mere proof of his identity – for from now on the Risen One would bear them for all eternity – but living signs of the price he paid to set us free from sin.