Reading I: Acts 2:42–47
Psalm: 118:2–4, 13–15, 22–24
Reading II: 1 Peter 1:3–9
Gospel: John 20:19–31
Verses 1-10 John has already said that Mary Magdalen went to the tomb of Jesus very early on the day after the sabbath, “the first day of the week”, and was astonished to see that the tomb was open because the stone had been moved from the entrance. Mary immediately presumed that someone had stolen the corpse. She ran back to tell Peter and John what she thought had happened. Peter and John then ran to the tomb and went inside and saw for themselves. John records what he himself saw and thought and he pays particular attention to the cloths in which Jesus’ body had been wrapped. First, if the body had been stolen why were the burial cloths left behind? But then another thing struck John. The cloths were still in the folds, not disarranged as they would have been if they had been removed from the body either by robbers or by Jesus Himself; it seemed that the body of Jesus had just come out of the cloths and left them lying there. Then John realised what had happened. Peter and John then returned to the house where they were staying. Verses 11-18 Mary, who must have come to the tomb with them after giving them her message, stayed on at the tomb weeping. It was then that Jesus appeared to her and asked her why she was weeping and who she was looking for, but she did not realise that it was Jesus and thought he was the man who cared for the garden. When he called her name, she recognised him, and then she went back and told the disciples that she had seen him. In today’s reading (v.19-23), John tells us that in the evening Jesus came to the house where the apostles were, locked in because they were afraid of the Jews. 1) He showed them the marks of the wounds in his hands and side. 2) He told them that they must carry on his work. 3) He gave them the Holy Spirit by breathing on them. 4) He gave them power to forgive sins, to call them back from the death of sinfulness to the new life of righteousness. A week later, verses 24-29. John tells us how Thomas had missed this appearance of Jesus and was not prepared to believe that Jesus had risen until he saw him for himself. Jesus came again in the same way a week later. The reason why this gospel is suitable for the Sunday after Easter. It is with the words of Thomas, who first refused to believe, that John’s gospel originally ended in a great profession of faith in the divinity of Christ. “You are my Lord and my God” You are Yahweh God, the true God of the Old Testament. John said at the beginning of his gospel “The Word was God” and he repeats it at the end on the lips of Thomas. Verses 30-31 The purpose of his gospel is achieved, to convince people by selected words and events that Jesus is God.
In his Gospel Luke gives us his picture of Christ and in the Acts his picture of the early church. In today’s reading there are four things which describe for us the life of the first Christian community in Jerusalem. They tried to know what God wanted of them from the teaching of the apostles and from the study of God’s word in the Bible (see Acts 17:11) and they tried to live their lives accordingly. They tried to live a spirit of brotherhood like members of one family even to the point of sharing all that they had, an ideal which soon showed signs of weakening because of human selfishness, as we see in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, who sold some property and kept back the money they received (see Acts 4:1-11). They joined together for the breaking of bread; this does not mean only that they had their meals together, but that they met together to celebrate the Holy Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, which was commonly referred to as “the breaking of bread”. “The bread that we break is a communion with the body of Christ” says Paul in I Cor. 10:16. This sharing in the Lord’s Supper set them apart from their friends who were still Jews, and Luke mentions that they celebrated the Eucharist “in their houses”. On the other hand, they met together for prayers, which were almost certainly the prayers and psalms handed down through the ages amongst the Jewish people, and for this they joined with their friends who were still Jews, because for the prayers they went to the Temple (v.46). They prayed together with the Jews in the Temple, but celebrated the Eucharist apart from the Jews in their own houses. In the Christian church today, not only priests and religious, but also more and more lay men and women, are still making use of the ancient Jewish prayers which we call the Psalms.
It is thought by some people that chapter 1:13 to 4:11 of this letter is a sermon given on the occasion of a baptism. “God has become our Father and we have been born anew as his children, by the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead” and this reminds us of our Lord’s words to Nicodemus (Jn. 3:5). Moreover we have already begun to share with Jesus in an inheritance that is being kept for us in heaven (v.4) Verse 6-7 This encouragement was very necessary for St. Peter’s Christians who were trying to live their faith in very difficult circumstances. Their trials were not just the ordinary problems and difficulties that come into every person’s life. Peter is almost certainly referring to the persecution which Christians were suffering under the Emperor who was called Nero (58-68). Peter and Paul were martyred under Nero probably between 64 and 67 and many Christians died for their faith during the years of Nero, especially after the great fire of Rome in 64 for which Nero blamed the Christians. All these trials are a test and give them a chance to show how strong their faith is. When the worst comes to the worst the power of Christ to save them will show itself and they will be able to endure in the way that Jesus came through his own suffering and death. 1) because of the hope that their faith holds out to them; 2) if they remember that their faith gives them strength in suffering and at the same time is made more strong by suffering; 3) because if their troubles are of many colours, the grace of God is many-coloured too and there is a colour in the grace of God to match every colour in the troubles that come their- way; there is a grace from God to match every trial and there is no trial without its grace; 4) if they remember that the day will come when they will hear Jesus say to them “Well, done.” In verse 8 and 9 Peter refers to the fact that it was his privilege to have lived with Jesus “in the flesh,” but they live with him by faith.” Jesus prayed for all people, like them and like ourselves, who would believe in him through the preaching of the apostles (Jn.17,20) and in today’s Gospel we hear Jesus declare blessed all who would believe in him without ever having seen him with their eyes. (Jn.20:29).
