The Gospel of the Day – 2017.04.23
The
Gospel of John 20:19-31
Gospel
Acclamation Jn 20:29
Second
Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9 ©
Psalm 117(118):2-4,13-15,22-24 ©
First
Reading Acts 2:42-47 ©
Faith
is Trust, Not Belief
The early Christian communities flourished
because they believed in one another, The trusted one another, the relied on
one another. They held their possessions in common and the lived according to
their beliefs. They shared their food, their clean water, their way of life.
Because of their example, their
communities grew.
It was not their faith in the risen Christ
that caused their communities to grow, it was their faith in each other, strengthened
by the example that Jesus had set which allowed them to flourish, and endure
persecution.
This is not to say that the good news of
the resurrection was not a binding doctrine for the early church, it was. But
hat bound them even more closely together was the living witness to that
teaching which they shared with one another.
The witness that God, the creator of the
universe, is kind, loving, and merciful.
Jesus taught this above all things, and
for a few short years this was the principle teaching of the Church he founded.
Jesus taught that God is a loving father, abba,
and God approaches God’s children in the spirit of love, always, even when
God is exercising judgment, and administering justice.
The
Church, like God, has no enemies.
God
does not dwell behind the wall of a city, a temple, a cathedral a basilica.
There
are no gates barring access to God, there are no barriers, in the world or in
the mind, or in the true dogma of the church..
God
is in all places, at all times and in the hearts of all people.
God
does not favor one child above another.
God
is a bringing of life, not death. God loves peace, not war.
Remember, God is the parent of everyone, the
creator of the universe, and everything in it.
The resurrection of Jesus (if you believe in
it) is a gift of hope. It is a reason to trust in what had theretofore been
unseen, and what has been promised to everyone.
Whether we believe in the resurrection or
not, this does not matter, the resurrection is the destiny that God has set in
place for every person, not one of God’s children will be left out.
What faith in the resurrection does: it makes
it easier to live the good life. When your belief in God’s love for you is
firm, it is much easier to pray for those who persecute you, to love your enemy,
to lead a just life, of kindness and sharing and mercy.
What faith in the resurrection is not: it
is not an article of belief that a Christian holds onto, granting them access
to paradise.
Faith will not protect you from evil, either
from within or from without.
Be mindful of what Saint
Peter taught, Peter is mistaken.
Peter praises the
faithful for their love and devotion to Jesus, for their belief in Jesus as the
Christ, as an object of devotion, as an idea
fixe. This makes transforms our image of Jesus into an idol; calling
Christians to give their love and devotion to an image, instead of to the way
of life that he taught.
Peter is mistaken.
Do not tell people to be
happy in their suffering, because they are suffering for a great cause. Do not
tell them this. If a person is suffering something which they must endure,
because they have no choice, so be it. Boost them up, support them, give them
hope, but do not speak to them about the honor and glory of their suffering,
and do not promise rewards for their suffering in the next life, do not promise
these things in the name of idols.
When Christian faith
moves away from the living tradition, and ceases to be way of life, when it
stops being about people, becoming a partisan thing, a thing of ideology, and
doctrine, then the way is lost.
The Gospel for the second Sunday of Easter
moves us for away from the ministry of Jesus and into the life of the early
church, into the era of partisanship.
John’s Gospel was written roughly one
hundred-twenty years after Jesus died. This reading contains some fascinating
glimpses into the life of John’s community.
John says that on the night Jesus was
crucified the apostles hid in the upper room for fear of the Jews, indicating
the deep division that had already taken place between the nascent church and
the Jewish people who founded it.
Jesus and the apostles were Jewish. Ninety
years before John’s gospel was written, Saint Paul was active in his ministry
to the gentiles, arguing with St. Peter about the notion that gentiles must
first become observant Jews before they could join the church.
St. Paul won that argument. The church opened
to the world, and ninety years later it would come to see the Jewish tradition
and its people as anathema to itself.
There was great concern for the church and
its authority in this time. The image and understanding of who Jesus is
changes. Jesus is reimagined as a priest doing priestly things; commissioning
the disciples, instantiating their office, and empowering the to pass judgement
on people, to forgive or not forgive sins as the disciples saw fit.
This flies in the face of the historical
Jesus, a man who was not a priest, but was a prophet.
Jesus forgave sins, and encourages the
disciples to forgive sins, not because they had the special power to do so, but
because God, the creator of the universe, forgives sins. When the prophet
proclaims absolution, they are not exercising a special power, they are
proclaiming the will of God, and announcing something that has already
happened.
This reading encourages the people to
respond to mystical deeds and magical happenings; ghostly apparitions and
visions, as if the claim that these supernatural events took place lent some
greater authority to their work.
Many are taken in by this sort of thing, it
is an appeal to magical thinking, but those types of appeals are always fabrications
and lies.
In the final passage the gospel writer
puts forth the notion that the miracles were real, they were performed so that
people would believe that Jesus is (in a special way) the son of God, and that
through this belief they would come into the church named after him, and thus
become candidates for eternal life.
The construction of this ideology is: come
to the church where the Gospel is given, learn the name of Jesus Christ,
believe that he is the Son of God, receive that belief as an object or an
article of faith, present that belief at the gates of, and be rewarded with
eternal life.
The scheme of this tradition, which will
be familiar to most Christians, this scheme is Gnostic.
The church rejected Gnosticism and these
themes in the same era that John’s Gospel was written.
We should to.
The meaning of faith is trust; trust in
God.
The meaning of faith is not belief, belief
in a proposition or an article of dogma.
Christian faith is not; believe in Christ
so that you can be saved. It is; trust God, that you are saved already.
First
Reading Acts 2:42-47 ©
The whole community remained faithful to
the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and
to the prayers.
The many miracles and signs
worked through the apostles made a deep impression on everyone.
The faithful all lived
together and owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions
and shared out the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed.
They went as a body to the
Temple every day but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared
their food gladly and generously; they praised God and were looked up to by
everyone. Day by day the Lord added to their community those destined to be
saved.
Psalm
117(118):2-4,13-15,22-24 ©
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love has no end.
Let
the sons of Israel say:
‘His
love has no end.’
Let
the sons of Aaron say:
‘His
love has no end.’
Let
those who fear the Lord say:
‘His
love has no end.’
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love has no end.
I
was thrust down, thrust down and falling,
but
the Lord was my helper.
The
Lord is my strength and my song;
he
was my saviour.
There
are shouts of joy and victory
in
the tents of the just.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love has no end.
The
stone which the builders rejected
has
become the corner stone.
This
is the work of the Lord,
a
marvel in our eyes.
This
day was made by the Lord;
we
rejoice and are glad.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love has no end.
Second
Reading 1 Peter 1:3-9 ©
Blessed be God the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy has given us a new birth as his sons, by raising
Jesus Christ from the dead, so that we have a sure hope and the promise of an
inheritance that can never be spoilt or soiled and never fade away, because it
is being kept for you in the heavens. Through your faith, God’s power will
guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed at the end of
time. This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may for a short
time have to bear being plagued by all sorts of trials; so that, when Jesus
Christ is revealed, your faith will have been tested and proved like
gold – only it is more precious than gold, which is corruptible even
though it bears testing by fire – and then you will have praise and glory
and honour. You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing
him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described,
because you believe; and you are sure of the end to which your faith looks
forward, that is, the salvation of your souls.
Gospel
Acclamation Jn 20:29
Alleluia,
alleluia!
Jesus
said: ‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy
are those who have not seen and yet believe.’
Alleluia!
The
Gospel of John 20:19-31
In the evening of that same day, the first
day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace
be with you’, and showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were filled
with joy when they saw the Lord, and he said to them again, ‘Peace be with you.
‘As the Father sent me, so am I sending
you.’
After saying this he breathed on them and
said:
‘Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose
sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are
retained.’
Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of
the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. When the disciples said, ‘We
have seen the Lord’, he answered, ‘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.’ Eight days later the disciples
were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but
Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’ he said. Then he spoke
to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand;
put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and
my God!’ Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen and yet
believe.’
There were many other signs that Jesus
worked and the disciples saw, but they are not recorded in this book. These are
recorded so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and
that believing this you may have life through his name.
(NJB)
2nd
Sunday of Easter
