SECOND Sunday of EASTER 30th of April 2000
First: Acts 4:32-35; Second: 1 Jn 5:1-6 Gospel: Jn 20:19-31
THEME of the READINGS
Faith and peace is the combination in which this Sunday’s liturgy summarizes the fundamental message. In the text of the Gospel we find them together, first peace as the gift of the risen Christ to his disciples, "Peace be with you," then with the confession of faith of the incredulous Thomas, "My Lord and my God!" To this Jesus adds, "You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." The first reading indicates the effects of faith and peace: the union of minds and hearts, the communion of goods, the Apostles’ witness of the risen Christ. Finally, in the First Letter of Saint John, the great power of faith is emphasized, which is capable of overcoming the world (second reading).
DOCTrinal MESSAGE
Faith in the risen Christ. The four Gospels dedicate their last pages to Jesus’ apparitions to his disciples. They are apparitions that presuppose a certain faith in Jesus, although not in his Resurrection. Through his apparitions Jesus not only confirms faith in his person, but also ensures that the mystery of the Resurrection becomes part of the content of the faith of his disciples. This way Jesus completes their faith, enlightens it with a splendor that has lasted up to our days, and instills in them a peace that no-one will be able to remove from their heart. The disciples were not prepared for the shocking encounter with the risen Christ. In their imagination, the risen Christ was something impossible, incredible, the pure imagination of impressionable and feverish women: time would take them back to reality. This is why Jesus’ apparitions must have fallen upon them like a "bombshell" that terrified and astonished them. Was it possible? Was it real? Yes, they are not visions, it is the same Christ that we knew before he was crucified. Yes, he still bears on his body the glorious traces of the nails. And then the miracle happened: they believed in the Resurrection of Christ, they believed in the resurrection of man. And they could not but communicate this ineffable and magnificent experience to those they met on their path. And thanks to them, to their testimony of faith, after twenty centuries we continue to believe in the resurrection.
The effectiveness of faith. A faith that does not change man’s life, does not transform his mental and vital, relational and operational categories, is not true faith in the risen Christ. Very conscious of this, Saint Luke talks to us about the effectiveness of faith among the first Christians of Jerusalem. The first fruit is the union between thinking and loving, because their thoughts were nourished by the teachings of the apostles and their desires were uniquely guided by their sincere love for one another. When the experience of the risen Christ is at the center of one’s life, then the differences in thinking and loving count very little, to the point that they are easily subjected to the power of sincere love. A second fruit is the communion of goods, to end not only ideological differences, but also economic differences, fulfilling the wish expressed by Moses in Dt 15:4, "There must, then, be no poor among you." The third fruit is the witness that the Apostles bear to the risen Christ: the frequency, the ardor, the audacity with which they preach this mystery that has transformed their existence forever. They can’t stop talking about what they saw and heard, as Peter will say in another episode of the Acts of the Apostles. This effectiveness of faith especially becomes manifest through peace, this integral peace that impregnates all of the believer with Christ and that flourishes in joy, and especially in love. This peace which is a gift of the Spirit that the risen Christ "blew" upon the disciples, as in a new creation.
PASTORal SUGGESTIONS
Faith which overcomes the world. The word "world" in the New Testament means several things: the universe, humankind and, in the moral sense, everything that opposes Christ and his revelation, everything that is sin. We refer to this latter sense when we say that faith is the only thing that can overcome the world. Human laws may improve the conduct of citizens, but they cannot defeat sin; furthermore, sometimes such laws are "mundane" for they allow or even promote actions that attack man’s very dignity. Institutions (charitable, social, educational, religious, institutions etc.) help man to build himself, but they cannot take away from humankind the world of sin and of opposition to Jesus Christ and his message. The human being left to his own devices is even less capable of eradicating evil and sin from himself and others. He may wage a titanic, heroic war, but his intent will always fail. The only thing that with absolute certainty can and is guaranteed to overcome and annihilate the evils of the world is faith in the risen Christ. A whole faith, that does not exclude any of the mystery of Christ; a living faith, that animates and gives meaning to man’s actions and activities; a working faith, that takes concrete shape in works of justice, solidarity, of Christian charity; a burning and passionate faith, which communicates its passion to others. Does your faith really overcome the world? Are these the characteristics of your faith, of the faith of the Christians with whom you live?
Every Sunday is Easter. Faith in the risen Christ, joy and the love that spring from faith in the Resurrection must be present and active every day of our life. But this is true in a special way on Sunday. And yet, for many weekends are just a chance to go wild, or experience Sundays in a passive and lazy way... Could it be that many Christians have the wrong and unjust idea of what Sundays are in God’s plans? This is a wonderful opportunity to read the numbers dedicated to this ecclesial celebration in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nn. 2174-2188; 1166-1167).
Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOB.html
[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].