Weekly Reflection 041507AD

Sunday, April 15, 2007AD

Second Sunday of Easter

Three Who Didn’t See, but Believed

The patron saint of Missouri, the “Show Me State” makes his annual appearance in our traditional Gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter. Thomas represents those who demand empirical verification that belief in Jesus is legitimate. When Jesus meets his demand, Thomas’ response is “My Lord and my God.” (This is the highest title attributed to Jesus in the Gospels.

Many think that the incident of Doubting (Skeptical) Thomas probably represented the last account in the original Gospel of John. If such is the case, Jesus’ words to Thomas at the conclusion of the Gospel today would have originally been the last words of the Risen One in the Fourth Gospel. “You believed, Thomas, because you have seen. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

Is Jesus talking about us? With the Help of the Holy Spirit, indeed, He is. However, it is not that easy. We all experience, at times, the Left Hand of God. In our lives, there is an assortment of experiences that challenge our faith in the God revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ. Catholics and all Christians should be very circumspect in talking about the depth of our faith. We all want to be strong believers. Still, sometimes the vicissitudes of life can challenge an easy faith and make our “credo’s” a little shakier.

During April each year, Catholics salute several twentieth century figures, who, with God’s Help, tried to believe amid adversity, even though they had not seen. We recall Lutheran theologian, Dietrich von Bonhoeffer, Jesuit scientist-theologian, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and the California farm worker, Cesar Chavez.

Bonhoeffer was a young Lutheran professor who was scandalized by how easily so many of the mainline German churches gave into the demands of Adolf Hitler. Germany was almost half Lutheran and half Roman Catholic. The tacit agreement made with many leaders by Hitler was simply to stick with prayers and rituals and don’t say anything about what is going on in Germany now. Bonhoeffer, in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, coined the expression, “cheap grace”, when one waves a baptismal certificate and claims membership and all its privileges when convenient. He also coined the expression “costly grace”, when one’s baptismal commitment to Christ Jesus makes demands upon us, such as speaking out and acting against the injustices of the Third Reich. Bonhoeffer was hanged on April 9, 1945, shortly before V-E Day.

Jesuit anthropologist- theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, saw the unity of creation, as did “the man of the twentieth century”, physicist, Albert Einstein. Teilhard’s simple little book, The Divine Milieu, identified the church, and, through the church in Christ Jesus, the entire world, as the place where God dwells in all things and all things dwell in God. Because he was so ahead of his time, Teilhard was treated with suspicion by church leaders in Rome. Still, much of his synthesis came to be celebrated after his death. Teilhard saw the Incarnation of God as the Omega Point, toward which unity, all things were moving. He died in NYC on Easter, April 10, 1955.

Thirdly, we remember Mexican American Catholic union organizer, Cesar Chavez, who died on April 23, 1999. He was motivated by the Gospel to organize non-violently the migrant workers who were exploited in many ways in the Southwest United States in the mid-century. Each union member was expected to pay dues each month as a commitment to the union. The union was committed to work through Gospel non-violence to point out and correct injustices against farmworkers. Dorothy Day and Robert Kennedy and others found further inspiration to work for justice.

All three did not see, but they believed. With God’s Help, may we who have not seen always believe, on good days and bad, in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God.

Thomas saw; Thomas believed. With God’s Spirit, may we all who do not see also believe!! 041507 AD jfq