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If you have been listening to the Bible in a Year podcast and are still on schedule,
\nthen you probably finished listening to the Gospel of John on Good Friday.
\nDon\u2019t worry if you\u2019re not on schedule,
\nmy family and I are a little behind, too.
\nBut if you are on schedule, then during Holy Week
\nyou heard John describe all the many signs and wonders
\nthat Jesus worked:
\nHe turned water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana.
\nHe cured the official\u2019s son from a distance.
\nHe healed the man who had been blind, lame and paralyzed for 38 years;
\nhe cured another blind man by making mud and smearing it in his eyes.
\nHe raised Lazarus from the dead.<\/p>\n
We have all heard these stories before,
\nand we know that the signs and wonders
\nthat Jesus worked while he lived among us
\nwere meant to encourage the people to believe in him.
\nToday we\u2019re told that that is the very purpose of John\u2019s Gospel:
\n\u201cthese are written that you may come to believe
\nthat Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The signs and wonders Jesus performed were powerful and effective,
\neven if they were temporary.
\nJesus turned water into wine
\nthat was gone once the wedding guests drank it up.
\nHe gave sight to blind eyes that would soon be closed again in death.
\nHe raised Lazarus from the dead only for him to die again.
\nHis bodily cures did not last forever,
\nand they were never meant to.
\nBut he used those visible signs and wonders,
\nthose temporary cures
\nto build up people\u2019s faith,
\nto bring about eternal healing and salvation.<\/p>\n
Some might say we need those signs and wonders today,
\nthat since Jesus no longer works such miracles among us,
\nthe Church was better off in its early days.
\nWe might wish to see signs and wonders with our own eyes:
\nJesus curing cancer in our friends and family,
\nor driving out the demons of addiction and depression.
\nSurely a little extra wine at our wedding this summer would be nice.<\/p>\n
Then, like the early disciples,
\nwe would be more easily able to believe in him,
\nand so would all those we know who have fallen away from the Church.<\/p>\n
But let us not be jealous of those early Christians
\nwho had the signs and wonders of Jesus in person
\nto help them in their belief.<\/p>\n
On the contrary, as St. Augustine says,
\ntoday Jesus puts those who have never seen and yet believe
\nahead of those who believe only because they see.<\/p>\n
Even those who lived with Jesus and saw him every day
\nstruggled with their belief.
\nSo fragile was the disciples\u2019 faith at that time,
\nthat even when they saw the Lord
\nthey found it necessary to touch him
\nbefore they could believe he had really risen from the dead.
\nThey were unable to believe the testimony of their own eyes,
\nuntil they had touched his body
\nand explored his wounds with their fingers.<\/p>\n
Only after this could Thomas,
\nthe most hesitant of all the disciples, exclaim:
\n\u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d
\nIt was by his wounds that Christ,
\nwho had so often healed the many wounds of others,
\ncame to be recognized himself.
\nThey knew him by his wounds.<\/p>\n
Now we might ask:
\ncouldn\u2019t the Lord have risen with a body
\nwithout any wounds at all,
\na body with no scars?
\nAnd we know he certainly could have;
\nbut he knew that his disciples carried within their hearts
\na wound so deep that the only way to cure it
\nwas to keep the scars of his own wounds in his body.<\/p>\n
The disciples had left everything behind to follow him.
\nThey had devoted their lives to him,
\nonly to see him brutally crucified like a common criminal,
\nand buried in a tomb, dead and gone,
\nlike all their hopes and dreams, seemingly.<\/p>\n
Their pain and disappointment was a gaping wound
\ndeep within their hearts as they gathered together in that upper room.<\/p>\n
It was only when the disciples saw the Lord’s wounds,
\nand when Thomas was able to explore them with his fingers a week later,
\nthat their own deep wounds could be healed,
\nand their despair transformed into joy.<\/p>\n
And when Thomas finally exclaimed, \u201cMy Lord and my God!\u201d,
\nwhat was Jesus\u2019 response?
\n\u201cHave you come to believe because you have seen me?\u201d
\n\u201cBlessed are those who have not seen and have believed.\u201d<\/p>\n
And who are those,
\nif not ourselves and those who come after us?<\/p>\n
When, later on, the Lord had ascended from human sight
\nand faith had had time to take root in people\u2019s hearts,
\nthose who believed in him made their act of faith
\nwithout seeing him or any of his signs and wonders,
\nwithout touching the one in whom they believed.
\nAnd so it has been from that day to this,
\nthrough countless generations of believers.<\/p>\n
How blessed we are, indeed,
\nwho have not seen or touched the wounds of Jesus,
\nand yet who believe in him.<\/p>\n
Like the disciples, we have our own deep wounds,
\nand blessed are we who believe the Lord can heal them,
\neven though we cannot see him or touch him.<\/p>\n
On this Divine Mercy Sunday,
\nwe recognize that this is the mercy of God:
\nthat Jesus is the divine physician,
\ncapable of bringing us not merely a temporary cure,
\nbut eternal healing and salvation.<\/p>\n
Like the disciples, we gather here on the first day of the week.
\nWe see the bread broken for us
\nand the wine poured out for us.
\nThough their appearance remains the same during the Eucharistic Prayer,
\nyet we believe that they become the Body and Blood of Christ.<\/p>\n
When we come forward to receive Holy Communion,
\nblessed are we who can say,
\n\u201cMy Lord and my God.\u201d<\/p>\n
St. Augustine tells us that such a faith is beautiful to behold,
\n\u201cbecause it springs from a devoted heart
\nrather than from an exploring hand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Let us not long for the signs and wonders
\nof the early days of the Church,
\nbut instead let us celebrate these days
\nin which we live in the eternal presence of Christ,
\nwho can heal us from all of our deepest wounds,
\nand whose divine mercy is everlasting.<\/p>\n