'That by believing you may have life in his name.' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter, Year B

 

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Caravaggio [Web Galleryof Art]

My Lord and my God! (John 20:28; Gospel)

Second Sunday of Easter

Divine Mercy Sunday 

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel  John 20:19-31  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked 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 am sending 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 them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

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 mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, 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 disbelieve, but believe.” 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 have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

The Torture of St Thomas

Giambattista Pittoni [Web Gallery of Art]

The Gospel on Ash Wednesday gives us the first recorded words of Jesus: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). Repent and believe the gospel is one of the formulas used in applying the ashes on our foreheads.

The closing words of today's Gospel tells us why it was written: so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20:31).

The First Reading tells us what the Apostles preached: And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all (Acts 4:33). 

St John in the Second Reading emphasises that our faith is in the Risen Christ and that it is through him we are saved: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him . . . Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1,5). St John goes further in the next two verses: This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.

It is the same St John, who stood at the foot of the Cross, who told us in the Good Friday reading of the Passion and death of Jesus: But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe (John 19:34-35).

I often think that St Thomas is 'underrated', if I may use that expression. He is called 'doubting Thomas'. In today's Gospel he rejects what the others told him but then shows great insight: Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.

Then when Jesus appears he makes the greatest act of faith in the whole of Sacred Scripture: My Lord and my God! Here in Ireland those words may be used as the acclamation after the Consecration when the priest says The Mystery of faith. In the Traditional Latin Mass there is no acclamation after the consecration but, at least in Dublin when I was young, we had a far more powerful acclamation after the Consecration: a 'communal cough' that was a release of the sense of awe at what had just happened, the bread and wine having become the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of the Risen Christ.

For St Thomas the scars of the Crucifixion that Jesus carried were the proof of his Resurrection and the sign of God's love for us as sinners. The Risen Lord carries these scars for all eternity. And he gives the Apostles the authority to forgive sins: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. This authority is passed on to all priests through the sacrament of Holy Orders. And in the sacrament of Confession the priest may at times withhold absolution in order to help the penitent to repent of a particularly grave sin when it is evident that repentance is not yet there. This is an act of mercy, not a condemnation, an invitation to continue struggling with God's help to repent and believe the gospel.

One particular lobby accuses the Church of not welcoming sinners when what they mean is that the Church refuses to accept certain kinds of sinful behaviour. The most welcoming place in any church should be the confessional. All who enter it are equal, including the priest. They are like the people lining up to be baptised by St John the Baptist in the River Jordan. Those who saw Jesus there would have presumed that he was just another sinner.

There are at least three churches in Dublin city centre that have confessions every morning and afternoon, Monday to Saturday: Whitefriar Street (OCarm), Clarendon Street (OCD) and the Blessed Sacrament Chapel (SSS), which is temporarily closed at least until 12 April. I sometimes go to confession in the latter two and always find other penitents there. In the Philippines confessions are a major part of the ministry of the Redemptorists, especially on Wednesdays when the Novena  to the Mother of Perpetual Help is celebrated.

Pope St John Paul II made this Sunday Divine Mercy Sunday. The scars of Jesus, as St Thomas understood so clearly, are the proof of God's mercy. The sacrament of Confession (Penance, Reconciliation) is an expression of that mercy, an ongoing invitation from the Risen Lord Jesus to repent and believe the gospel . . . and that by believing you may have life in his name.

I know that my Redeemer liveth

from Handel's Messiah

Sung by Pavla Flámová with the Café International Baroque Orchestra

I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God (Job 19: 25-26). For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep (I Corinthians 15: 20).

The High Altar, Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres, France

by Charles-Antoine Briden

[Wikipedia; photo]

Traditional Latin Mass

The Octave Day of Easter (Low Sunday)

The complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 04-07-2024 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 John 5:4-10. Gospel: John 20:19-31. 

The Incredulity of St Thomas

Rembrandt [Web Gallery of Art]

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' (John 20:27; Gospel). 

'The baptismal font that unites the child with the Body of Christ and the life of the Church.' Sunday Reflections, The Baptism of the Lord, Year C

 

The Baptism of Christ

Francesco Mochi [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Note: In the New American Bible (NAB) lectionary you will find an alternative First Reading, Responsorial Psalm and Second Reading that may be used in Year C.  The Jerusalem Bible version above gives only only what the NAB gives as alternative readings and psalm. The Gospel below is always read in Year C.

Gospel Luke 3:15-16, 21-22 (Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition)  

As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ,  John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

 

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Comfort ye, my people

From Handel's Messiah

Tenor: Jon Vickers; Conductor: Sir Thomas Beecham

This is the beginning of the alternative First Reading of today's Mass (Isaiah 40:1-3). The translation is that of the Authorized (King James) Version, used by Handel.

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her,
that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned:
for she hath received of the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

Baptism of Christ

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.

At our baptism the Father spoke the same words to each of us, his beloved sons and daughters. At Mass yesterday, Saturday, these powerful words of St John were read: In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins  (1 John 4:9-10).

At our baptism, as at the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan the love of God was made manifest among us. What greater assurance can we have of God's love?

In 1984 a young person in Belgium full of anger towards everything connected with religion wrote a letter to an older person, a layman, expressing his feelings. The older man replied, in part:

When I was still a teenager, I discovered that God, in the person of Jesus, loved us and loved me with a love that is foolish, but very real. He suffered the most excruciating torture in order to save us, to save me, to save each one of us personally from the grip of evil, and to enable us to share, if we so will, in his divine life. That, if we accept him, his Father will become our Father, my Father. That Mary, his mother, will also become my mother, our mother.

From that day on my life changed. By that I mean my way of looking at things, because I'm afraid I'm still the same poor chap, with the same faults as before. But my weaknesses don't discourage me any longer: on the contrary, they provide me with a reason for trusting totally in the all-powerful strength of my Father who is also your Father.

The ‘same poor chap’ who wrote that letter was the late King Baudouin of the Belgians who died suddenly in 1993. In it he was taking to heart the words of the First Letter of St John: In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And in recognising that he himself is still the same poor chap he is acknowledging that Jesus is not ashamed of him, no more than Jesus was ashamed of the sinners he lined up with to be baptized by John, even if he himself was utterly sinless.

King Baudouin and Queen Fabiola in 1969

[Wikipedia]

King Baudouin wasn't ashamed of his subjects or of those who came to his country from elsewhere. The London newspaper, The Independent, carried an astonishing story about his funeral (I've highlighted some parts):

A former prostitute paid an emotional homage to King Baudouin at the funeral Mass. One of a handful of people chosen to deliver orations, Luz, a Filipino, praised the King for his fight against the international sex trade. She stood in silence as a writer, Chris de Stoop, read aloud the words she had written. She had met the King when he paid a highly-publicised visit to a brothel in Antwerp, and De Stoop said both the King and Queen had wanted her to address the funeral. This was her homage:

Now my friend passed away, who else can help us? I come from Manila. My family is very poor. I was promised a nice job in Europe. But Belgian men put us in a sex club. Belgian men put us in prostitution. We cried and we refused. But nobody could help us. We were forced. We were treated like slaves. When I could run away, I was arrested by police. I had many problems. 

Last year the King came to see us in Antwerp. We were five girls there. We cried again but it was different tears. The King was holding my arm. He listened to me. Only the King listened to us. He was shocked. There are too many victims here. From Manila. From Bangkok. From Santo Domingo. From Budapest. From eastern Europe. All looking for a better life in the West. All pushed into prostitution. The King was fighting against this sex trade. He was standing up for us. He was a real king. I called him my friend.

Mary Magdalene in Penitence

El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

King Baudouin, living his faith in Jesus Christ, brought hope into the lives of people on the margins, the hope that Jesus brought into the world by standing with us sinners in the River Jordan. The King himself had suffered much in his lifetime. His mother, Princess Astrid of Sweden, died in a car accident when he was only five. He, his sister and brother, with their father King Leopold III were under house arrest during World War II and spent part of it in Germany. In 1951 Leopold, a cause of bitter division in Belgium because of his surrender to Nazi Germany in 1940, abdicated and his elder son took over, not yet 21.

In 1960 the young king married Doña Fabiola de Mora y Aragón from Spain. To their great sorrow, they had no children. Queen Fabiola had five miscarriages.

In 1990 King Baudouin asked the government to declare him temporarily unable to reign so that he wouldn't have to sign a bill legalising abortion. The government agreed. The King's stand was one of principle, though he was unable to stop the law coming into force.

King Baudouin went to Mass every day and to confession regularly. The baptism of Jesus by St John the Baptist might spur each of us on to avail of the sacrament of reconciliation often and to us priests to make ourselves available for it. The King would write a 'thought for the day' in his pocket diary, a text from the Mass.

And in that diary, after his death, this prayer was found:

Lord, make us suffer with the suffering of others. 

Lord, let us never again keep our happiness to ourselves. 

Make us share the agony of all suffering humanity. 

And deliver us from ourselves, if that is in accordance with your will.

Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens

[Wikipedia]

The king’s close friend and biographer, Cardinal Suenens, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, wrote that Baudouin once confided to a friend his purpose in being King of the Belgians:

To love his country, 

to pray for his country, 

and to suffer for his country.

King Baudouin lived out his baptism as a disciple of Jesus, knowing that through baptism he was a brother of Jesus and of the Belgian people he was called to serve. He lived out the sacrament of matrimony by his great love for his wife and queen, Fabiola. He truly believed that Jesus loved him with a deep personal love.

Though none of us is a king or queen, Jesus, the beloved Son of the Father, loves each of us with that same personal love and draws us into the love of his Father as our Father. And we can adapt King Baudouin’s words in expressing his purpose in being king as our purpose in living out our baptism:

To love our family, community, country, 

to pray for our family, community, country, 

and to suffer for our family, community, country.

Baptistry, St Mark's Cathedral-Basilica, Venice

Italian Mosaic Artist [Web Gallery of Art]

Baisteadh

leis An Athair Pádraig Ó Croiligh

Nuair a chaoineann páiste ag an Bhaisteadh

Deirtear go bhfuil sé sona.

An é go dtuigeann an páiste ag an aois sin

An bhaint idir Eaglais agus céasadh Chríost?

Nó an dtuigeann an páiste an chiall

Atá le sagartacht, ríogacht and fáidheoireacht

An uair a chuirtear an ola ar a cheann?

Éide bhán, ola agus coinneall,

Ní mó iad ná an t-uisce a dhoirtear ar a chloigeann.

Agus is comhartha cinnte arís é

Pobal na clainne atá bailithe timpeall.

Umar an bhaiste a aontaíonn an páiste

Le Corp Chríost agus le saol na hEaglaise

Tionchar an phobail agus críonnacht na muintire

A chuireann fás faoin saol úr i gCríost.

From Brúitíní Creidimh published by Foilseacháin Ábhar Spioradálta, 2005.

Baptism

by Fr Pádraig Ó Croiligh

My non-poetic, literal translation from the Irish.

When a child cries during Baptism

It is said to be happy.

Is it that the child at that age understands

The connection between Church and the Crucifixion of Christ?

Or does the child understand the meaning of

Priesthood, kingship and prophecy

When it is anointed on the head?

A white garment, oil and candle,

But none more important than the water poured on the child's head.

And another sure sigh is

The family community gathered around.

The baptismal font that unites the child

With the Body of Christ and the life of the Church.

The influence of the faithful and the wisdom of the community

Bring growth to this new life in Christ.

Pater Noster

Our Father sung in Latin by St John Paul II

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

First Sunday after the Epiphany

Feast of the Holy Family

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 01-09-2022 if necessary).

Epistle: Colossians 3:12-17.  Gospel: Luke 2:42-52.

Christ Among the Doctors

Leonaert Bramer [Web Gallery of Art]

'The disciples recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread, alleluia.' Sunday Reflections, 3rd Sunday of Easter, Year B

Kitchen Scene with the Supper in Emmaus

Diego Velázquez [Web Gallery of Art]

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread (Luke 24:35).

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland)

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Gospel Luke 24:35-48  (English Standard Version, Anglicised)

Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread.

As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace to you!” But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

  

Léachtaí i nGaeilge

Christ in the House of Mary and Martha

Diego Velázquez [Web Gallery of Art]

It is clear from many gospel readings, most especially the accounts of the Last Supper, that God reveals himself to us in the intimacy of a meal. If the family meal or meals with close friends are not part of our lives, how can we understand the meal aspect of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass? In the Mass, in which we unite ourselves with the Sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross, he gives himself, the Risen Lord, body, blood, soul and divinity, as the Bread of Life, as so many of us learned when we were young. It is not a symbol of himself that he gives in Holy Communion, but his very self, carrying the scars of Calvary and giving us the strength to do the same.

But God also reveals himself to us in our ordinary meals, sometimes even over a cup of tea or coffee. I remember one person who was close to me who for many years had carried a resentment towards someone who had since died, a resentment that was the result of a painful experience. Over a cup of tea with a family member she recalled what her father, long since dead, had said to her many years before: Never carry a grudge against anyone. Over that cup of tea she finally let go of her self-inflicted pain, forgave, and moved on with a new lightness in her heart. I have no doubt whatever that it was Jesus the Risen Lord who spoke to her that day through the words of her father. It was a kind of Resurrection experience over a cup of tea.

The three readings both speak of God's mercy and the call to repentance, something the person in the story above experienced over that cup of tea. Acts 3:18-19 reads: But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out. 1 John 2: 1-2, 5 tells us But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world . . . but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected.

Jesus tells us in the Gospel: Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things (Luke 24:46-48).

Velázquez in the two paintings above puts the central events in the background. In the kitchen scene in Emmaus it seems that the servant has a sense that her humble work is part of something extraordinary. And it is. In the kitchen scene in the house of Mary and Martha the servants are preparing a meal for our Saviour Himself, without being aware of it. 

Highlighted in this scene are fish. The fish was later to become a symbol of Christ and of the Holy Eucharist for Christians in times of persecution under the Greek name Ichthys. And in today's gospel we read: “Have you anything here to eat?” They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Ichthys

[Wikipedia]

Two great deprivations at the moment because of the pandemic is that in many parts of the world Catholics have no access to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and to Holy Communion. And even more people cannot visit their families and friends, cannot meet up for a meal, for a drink, for a chat over a cup of coffee. However, though it is not the same as meeting others face-to-face, we can keep in contact by phone, by Skype, by Zoom and similar programmes. And while following Mass on the internet or on TV is not the same as being actually present, it is an occasion of grace, of meeting the Lord. And we can make a Spiritual Communion.

Even when we're not talking about profound things at a meal, when we see them as occasions when we most experience our humanity, when we see the link between the family or community meal, or a meal to which we invite someone living alone, and the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we can more readily understand the implications of the closing words of today's gospel, You are witnesses of these things.

And a final word. If the two disciples who told how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread, had not invited Jesus to eat with them they would never have recognised him. So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, for it is towards evening and the day is now far spent.” So he went in to stay with them (Luke 24:28-29). 

Peasants at the Table

Diego Velázquez [Web Gallery of Art]

Sung by the Choir of the Abbey of Saint-Pierre de Solesmes, France

Antiphona ad communionem  Communion Antiphon (Luke 24:35)

[Alleluia] Cognoverunt dicxipuli Dominum Iesum in fractione pahis, alleluia.

[Alleluia] The disciples recognised Jesus in the breaking of the bread, alleluia.

Extraordinary Form of the Mass

Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) 

Second Sunday after Easter 

The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 4-18-2021 if necessary).

Epistle: 1 Peter 2:21-25.  Gospel: John 10:11-16.

 

Authentic Beauty

Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond.

Pope Benedict XVI meeting with artists in the Sistine Chapel, 21 November 2009.

The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba

George Frideric Handel

Played by the English Baroque Soloists

Conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner

This must be one of the most delightful pieces of music ever written and has been arranged for all sorts of instruments and combinations thereof. I chose this recording because Tuesday 20 April is the 78th birthday of the conductor, Sir John Eliot Gardiner. 

We were born on the same day, he in Dorset, England, and I in Dublin, Ireland, where Handel's Messiah was first performed on 13 April 1742.