With great power, the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. On this Second Sunday of Easter, the universal Church celebrates the Feast of Divine Mercy. It is a feast that calls upon us to recognize the greatness of God’s merciful love in order to “take advantage” of it and enjoy the fullness of life that God wishes upon us. Since this merciful love of God towards us was fully expressed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (cf. Romans 5:8), it is only fitting that this feast be celebrated in the octave of the great solemnity of the resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus was a pivotal moment in the life and growth of the early Church. It was the pillar around which the early Church gathered in order to charter its future. For it was after the resurrected Jesus begun to appear to the disciples that they started to come out of hiding in order to publicly embrace their identity. Today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is part of the story that recounts the wonderful transformation that took place within the early Christian community. The days following the arrest, prosecution and execution of Jesus was definitely a difficult time for group that Jesus had gathered around himself. Not only had the group been scattered by the violent arrest and prosecution of Jesus, but fear also came upon the group. They feared that the treatment their master and leader had received could be extended to them. However, some good did come out of the group’s initial fear.
Following the execution of Jesus, the disciples who had remained in Jerusalem began to band together for comfort and solidarity. It was easier for them to face their detractors as a group rather than as individuals. But soon, their banding together acquired a new outfit. For even as the disciples continued to stay together for companionship and mutual support, they began to see in their coming together an opportunity to live the kind of life that they had learnt from their master. No longer was their coming together merely out of fear of persecution. They were now coming together to make a statement. They wanted their new way of life to speak for them. And it did.
The initial fear that had come upon the group was fading away, and it was now being replaced by courage and zeal. The source of their courage was the resurrection of their master. In today’s Gospel passage, we read about two of the several post-resurrection appearances of Jesus to his followers. The appearances served to reassure and encourage the disciples to hold on for Jesus was still with them. In the first of today’s two appearances, Jesus, after wishing the gathered disciples peace, breathes upon them the Holy Spirit (the advocate whom he had promised them and whose responsibility was to teach and guide them [cf. John 16:13]) and sends them forth on mission. It is this Holy Spirit that emboldened the disciples into coming out of hiding in order to proclaim the resurrected Christ. The fact that Jesus had overcome death and was alive in their midst filled the disciples with courage and zeal to tell the story of Jesus.
In the second appearance, Thomas is moved to confess the resurrected Jesus as Lord and God. After confirming that it was indeed the very Jesus he had seen die on the cross who was now standing in their midst – albeit with a new ability to pass through locked doors and walls – Thomas falls on his knee in adoration of Jesus. Thomas recognizes the transformation that has taken place in Jesus his master. He recognizes that the resurrected Jesus is not merely the master he had known for a couple of years now. The body that he had touched as he put his finger in the wound at his side was not like his (Thomas’) own body. Having passed through death and emerged victorious, it was now a glorious body. Jesus himself was now a divine being worthy of adoration. He was God. Thomas himself became transformed in the process. He became a believer in the resurrection (overcoming the powers of darkness) and went ahead to proclaim it to the ends of the earth (tradition has it that he went as far as India where he was martyred).
Like Thomas, the resurrection of Jesus calls upon us to believe in the transformation that takes place when darkness is overcome. Like Thomas, our belief in the resurrection must ignite inside of us a desire to spread the good news of this transformation. Like the disciples who were graced to see the resurrected Jesus, may our belief in the resurrection afford us new life that God has made available to us in Jesus Christ.