Sun 11 Apr 9:30am | 2nd Sunday of Easter

First Reading Acts 4:32-35
All of our First Readings in the Season of Easter come from the Acts of the Apostles, telling the story of the infant Church. The image presented in today’s reading is one of unity of heart and soul and material goods. This was for one end: to give witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Second Reading 1 John 5:1-6
Today’s Second Reading is a reflection on the power of love which we see manifest in the resurrection of Jesus. If we love God – and we do – we are begotten by God and therefore we have overcome the world.

Gospel Reading John 20:19-31
Eight days after Easter Sunday, the Church reads the account of event which happened after one very particular ‘first day of the week’. Unlike Thomas, we cannot touch the wounds of Jesus, and yet blessed are we because we believe.

The Risen Christ appears and His first words to us are: Shalom, Peace be with you! (Jn 20:19-31) Easter is the victory of God’s love over the forces of evil.

This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia! Christ is risen, alleluia!

Our joy at Easter, our joy in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is so great that we celebrate Easter for fifty days. The joy which we have, that Christ is truly risen from the dead, is so great, so momentous, that our joy cannot be contained in just one day. It cannot even be contained in one week. Instead, our joy is so great that it flows out of our celebration of Easter Sunday into this week. In the Church’s reckoning, this past week – the octave of Easter – every day has been like Easter Sunday. But not even this week of Sundays is enough to contain our Easter joy. Because our Easter joy will continue to flow out into the next fifty days until the Solemnity of Pentecost.

In today’s Gospel reading, Thomas did not believe it. Thomas was not there when Jesus first appeared to the disciples. And when the disciples tell Thomas that great news – ‘We have seen the Lord’ – Thomas does not believe them. He wants to see some proof: ‘Unless I see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe’.

And this is why we celebrate Easter for fifty days. This is why at the Easter Vigil we sing ‘This is the night when Jesus Christ broke the chains of death and rose triumphant from the grave’. Jesus, who was dead, is now alive. God’s steadfast and faithful love is so strong that death has no more power over Jesus. Death is destroyed for ever. And death has no more power over us. And Thomas comes to see this.

May we all be beacons of faith, hope and love.