The Second Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2020

John 20:19–31

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” 

Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 

Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” 

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

St. John tells us that when Jesus appeared to him and the other Apostles in their locked house on the day he rose from the dead, “he showed them his hands and his side”.  He did this for two reasons.  The first was to prove to the Apostles that it was truly him.  Indeed, he showed them his side.  This was not just a man who had been crucified, but the Lord himself.  John carefully wrote during his account of the Lord’s Death how one of the guards on Golgotha had pierced his side with his lance.  Probably he had done this to see if Jesus was dead, since men usually lasted several hours and even a few days on the cross, and Jesus had only suffered for three hours.  John, who had been with Jesus on Golgotha, would have recounted this detail to his fellow Apostles.  This mutilation, this open wound in his side, was, then, the mark of identification that this was Jesus in fact.

The second reason Jesus showed them his hands and side was “that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”  That is, Jesus shows them that he has redeemed them.  His wounds are trophies which he triumphantly bears back from death.  He holds up before their eyes the keys to heaven.  They look upon him and see that death is conquered — that their death is conquered.

This is the loving mercy of the Son of God, to die a terrible Death of heartbreak and agony for us, and then to come to us to show us how much he loves us.  He stands before us with his hands and his side as though offering us his embrace.  May we respond as St. Thomas did, saying with him, with love and wonder, “My Lord and my God!” and enter that embrace.