April 11, 2010 2nd Sunday of Easter Acts 5:12-16; Rev. 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19; Jn. 20:19-31 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Readings:     http://www.usccb.org/nab/041110.shtml    ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Though Thomas is sometimes referred to as doubting Thomas, he was not a man without faith. But he was unwilling to accept the resurrection of Jesus on the word of the other disciples. He wanted concrete proof; he wanted to see for himself and to touch the wounds. How can we blame him? No one really expected that Jesus would rise from the dead. It seems to have come as a surprise. As for Thomas, after his experience of the risen Lord, his enthusiastic testimony was a remarkable declaration of faith in Christ’s divinity. He cried out: “My Lord and my God!”   Our faith comes to us through the words of others. We hear them at home, in school, at church and from many corners of our lives. If we ever challenge aspects of the faith, it is usually because we judge them to be irrelevant.   We are like Thomas. We, too, have doubts and express those doubts and inquiries. We have questions about God, Jesus, the Bible, the Christian faith. We have big questions such as, “Is there a personal God?” or “Is there no validity to the other world religions?” or “Why is there so much evil in the world?” Or we often have personal questions such as “Why did I get this heart attack? Why cancer? Why did the child die so young? Why am I and my family having all these troubles?” So we are like Thomas: we also have questions and we often express those questions. We don’t hide them.   We are like Thomas in another way. We too want proofs and signs. We would like God to prove that God really exists, that there is truly another dimension to existence. We would like God to work some miracles in our personal lives so we could more easily believe. All Christians, a sometime during their life, sometimes more than others, will doubt and question God. Jesus says: Thomas, stop doubting and believe.  There is a time in all of our lives where God says to us, “It is time to stop your doubting. It is time to move past your doubting. It is time to believe and experience the power of belief.” In the Book of Job, Job went on doubting, complaining and questioning God for thirty eight chapters and God finally got tired of Job’s doubting and said,  “Be quiet Job. I am tired of your wailing and doubting. Be quiet and believe.” Yes, there is great power in a life that believes in Christ, loves in Christ, walks in Christ.     <<   Previous: Easter Sunday  | Next: 3rd Sunday of Easter >>   Go Back to SERMONS (Year C)