We have seen that we must seek the kingdom of Heaven prudently: now I answer you about the attitude we should hold toward the Holy Communion, and how it befits us to take it. We should not use a foolish humility, as do secular men of the world.
Today there are many voices enticing people into the ways of death. As in the days of Christ, they speak in tones of prudence, expedience and self-protection. We are caught in the gravitational pull towards death. To stand on the side of life calls for the risks and initiatives of a different policy.
The overarching story of the cross and resurrection, within which Jesus’ stories and the stories about Jesus come together, in turn gathers in the stories of the Hebrew Scriptures so that they become newly laden with transforming potential.
There he was. In the midst, though the doors were still firmly bolted. He was familiar, yet different. . . . “Have you anything to eat?” And he “ate before their eyes.” How often had they shared a meal! How important it is for friends to share a meal, to break bread! This communion in the neediness of our humanity—how it feeds our relationship!
The history of Saint Mark, the Disciple and Evangelist, Archbishop of the great city of Alexandria, and first of its Bishops. . . . Now Aristobulus had a son named John. And after they had taken up their abode in the province of Palestine, near the city of Jerusalem, the child John grew and increased in stature by the grace of the Holy Ghost.
Thomas is the saint who makes sure that the Easter people do not omit the missing factor. He shows what there is in this story of resurrection which we can celebrate without hollow unreality in the midst of these grievous years, in the midst of our powerlessness. Only a Lord with wounds can save us now.
In the silence, we are being prepared for this awakening which is an encounter with the fullness and the splendour of Jesus in that fully awakened state to which the Resurrection led Him, because no one comes to the Father of all except through the Son in whom all creation comes into being.
For a long time I felt jealous of your disciples who saw your pierced side when you appeared to them, and of Thomas who was allowed to touch your wounds. Often I thought, “How much easier would it have been to believe in you and give myself to you without reservation if I could just have been there with them!” But even as I think this way, I know already that I am fooling myself and looking for an excuse to keep my distance from you.
Lord Jesus Christ, my sweet and gracious Master,
Thou has displayed a greater love than that of any man;
nor can the love of any equal Thine.
For, owing nought to death,
“Have you believed because you have seen me?” Jesus asked Thomas, our twin. My guess is that Thomas believed not because of what his eyes had seen, but because of what his heart had seen. With his eyes, he had seen only Jesus the son of Joseph and Mary, a man much like other men—so many inches high, so many pounds heavy, hair this color, eyes that color.