St. Norbert's Church - Sunday Reflections

Once the reality of the Resurrection touched the lives of the early followers of Jesus, they could not keep silent about His presence in their lives. They had to talk about him among themselves and to others. What had happened was just so startling and so compelling that they could not be still. They had to share this presence of Jesus in their lives.

We who come so many years after the Resurrection must have some encounter with the Risen Lord. Once we let Him touch our lives, we are never the same. It is so incredible to know Jesus and to believe in His life, death and Resurrection. We also must feel this impulse to share our experience of Him at work in our lives. It is different from the experience of these early followers who ate, drank, walked and talked personally with Jesus. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.

When we read the Scriptures, we come into contact with the witness of these early believers. We are invited to believe because of their witness. Perhaps their witness sounds nadve or simple to us. On the other hand, they were ordinary people, workers, outcasts, fishermen, tax collectors, women with bad reputations, etc. Just ordinary people who met Jesus and whose lives were changed forever.

Many of us have walked with the Jesus for years and years and have never felt the excitement that these earlier follows felt. On the other hand, many of them also seem not to have been terribly moved at first. Think of Saint Peter or of Saint Thomas, who shows up in the Gospel today. These are people that perhaps we can identify with. Peter who is such an enthusiast and yet denies knowing the Lord. Thomas who uses big words to show that he won�t believe easily and then is embarrassed when Jesus asks him to believe.

We need never be afraid of our own weaknesses, our doubts or our rejections of the Lord. Always He continues to love us. Always He finds new ways to sneak into our hearts and our minds. If we have walked with Him, then we can look at our history with Him and see what has happened in our lives. In many relationships we can feel that nothing changes. When we look back, however, we find that things are always changing.

This is Divine Mercy Sunday, Thomas Sunday and the Octave of Easter. We can hear the echo of the Book of Revelation in our own lives: Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever.

Let us renew our faith, as did Thomas. Let us believe in the Lord and reflect on all that He has done already within us. Let us be open to let Him surprise us again if we will just invite Him into hearts once more.

Christ is risen! Alleluia.