1st After Easter, Vast Unfolding Design

 1^st Sunday after Easter

John 20:19-29 

On the evening of the first day after

Coptic

the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!”And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy, the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on, you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offenses.”

Morgan Psalter

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.” 

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.” 

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.” And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.” 

1^st After Easter

April 24, 2022

John 20:19-29 

A child of two or three is absorbed with learning about the sense world, exploring and naming things. But around four, there comes a moment when the child will close its eyes and say, ‘I can see pictures’. An inner eye opens, and the faculty of picture-making, of imagination, day-dreaming, and ultimately of memory is born. Some children can then also image real beings that cannot be seen with outer eyes. 

Tissot

The disciples of Christ spent three years with Him, getting to know him in the sense world. They learned to name Him. After the great panorama of His tragic death, He was lost to their ordinary sight. But their love for Him had readied them to see Him with the imaging faculty of their hearts. He comes to them, and they see Him with the eye of the heart. 

In His coming, He gives them a task: He breathes into them holy, healing Spirit, in order that they may work in a strengthening, healing way in the destinies of those whom they meet. Their hearts are to be open, filled with trust in His power, so that they may also see Him at work in the lives of others. They begin to trust in His power working in their hearts, in others, as a new capacity of seeing. 

Poet Denise Levertov describes this moment of awakening in her poem about St. Thomas, who says: 

But when my hand

Led by His hand’s firm clasp

Entered the unhealed wound,

Wayne Forte

My fingers encountering

Rib-bone and pulsing heat,

What I felt was…

…light, light streaming

Into me, over me, filling the room…

I witnessed

all things quicken to color, to form,

My question

Not answered, but given

Its part

In a vast unfolding design lit

By a risen sun.* 

The Act of Consecration of Man is also a picture of Christ’s working. Gathered in prayer, we receive Him in the inner room of our heart. Our hearts see Him offering thanks to His Father. We see Him uniting His soul with bread, with water and wine. We feel His touch. He breathes His peace into us so that we too can work in a healing way in the lives of others, ‘in a vast unfolding design, lit by a risen sun.’

 

* Denise Levertov, “St. Thomas Didymus”, in The Stream and the Sapphire, p. 81

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

1st Sunday after Easter 2021, Take Joy

1st Sunday after Easter

John 20:19-29


On the evening of the first day after

the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!”And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy, the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on, you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offenses.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Rembrandt

Eight days later, the disciples were a
gain gathered in the inner room, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.” And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2nd Easter
April 4, 2021
John 20:19-29

The disciples had locked themselves in out of fear. This year especially, we can imagine how their souls were in a state of agitation. Even though some of them had reported seeing Christ Risen, the shock waves of the previous week were still reverberating. Everything that had happened, the earthquakes, the torture and execution of their Beloved, His rising from the dead, it was all so stupefying. They retreat.

Then He appears. 'Look, He says, here are my wounds.

Coptic

I even died, but I am still radiantly and joyfully alive.' He brings them the gift of Himself. With that gift, He brings them another, the gift of calm tranquility. The creative Word of God speaks peace into their hearts. He breathes the love of His healing Spirit into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing."

Fear can signal important information to us: Danger may be near; we may need to take action to protect ourselves. But by His own actions, Christ indicates that we are nonetheless to move fairly quickly into a state of peace, balance, and tranquility.

Christ would have us work calmly, in peace and love, from the center of our being. And whether we see Christ or not, we can hear Him say to us in every Act of Consecration: 'My Peace can be with you because I give it to you.' The healing breath of His Spirit of peace is available for us to inhale always. We can always ask Him: Make me a channel of Your peace. For as Fra Giovanni said in the 16th century:

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven!
No peace lies in the future that is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!
The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy.*


*Fra Giovanni Giocondo, written on Christmas Eve 1513.

https://www.thechristiancommunity.org/blog-posts/

Second Easter Week, Stand It

1^st Sunday after Easter

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!”And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Grunewald

Full of joy, the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on, you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offenses.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

 

Rembrandt

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.” And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2nd Easter Week, II

April 22, 2020

John 20:19-29

In today’s reading Christ offers healing and peace to his suffering disciples. “He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing.” John 20:22 Madsen

Peace seems to have to do with a state of calm, equilibrium, and serenity. It is tranquil. Beyond simply not being ‘at war’, peace also has to do with harmony, accord, goodwill, and acceptance. In The Christian Community’s communion service, Christ says that he stands filled with peace toward the world. This is amazing if you think about it. How could He be at peace with all that is going on, with all the suffering and evil?

I think one of the key words here is ‘stand.’

Stephen Whatley

Christ is upright in His relationship to the world. He stands facing the world; he stands by it. He stands it. He doesn’t turn away from it. Instead, He radiates goodwill toward all of us. Always. That takes a deep capacity of endurance, which Christ Jesus earned the hard way.

Think of what He went through. Misunderstood, betrayed by his community, abandoned by his friends, persecuted, and though innocent, tortured and executed in a shameful manner, He nevertheless forgave, rose and continues to pour out the warmth of His love, His tranquility, His harmonious and harmonizing interaction with the world as it is. But He doesn’t stop there. He asks us what we, together with Him, can do to bring the world forward, to help it heal and evolve.

There is a spiritual law which says that anything that anyone accomplishes while in a body on earth is deposited in the spiritual treasure chest of humanity and is then available to all. Having inhabited Jesus’ body with all that He experienced in it, Christ’s love has already conquered that in the human constitution which leads to a lack of peace. He has conquered the human being’s natural egotism, aggression, our “against-ness,” the anger and fear and opposition that destroy our inner peace. He countered them with the peace that He generated through acceptance and, primarily through a deep love for humanity.

Stephen Whatley

Because Christ did so within the frame of a human body and soul, there is a peace-seed that has been planted deep within every human soul. No matter how rough the inner human terrain, how stormy the life, how full of the ‘weeds’ of worry, fear or anger, we can choose to cultivate this seed of peace in us, to nurture it, grow it in the warm light of His love. For as He says further in the service, He gives us His peace. Not as the world gives.

Christ’s peace is dynamic. It both calmly accepts things as they are and at the same time works to create healing solutions. Christ’s peace and love create unity; not sameness, but harmonizing the differences, like a chord of notes in music. We are all sundered, separated from the work of angels, from each other, from those who have died, even from Him. He waits for us to turn to Him, to ask for His peace. Praying the Lord’s Prayer is one way of asking.

If this sounds hard, it is because it is. The embodied Christ achieved what he did for humankind’s future. It will take us a while to catch up to Him. But meanwhile, He offers us His abiding love and support, His peace.

Rev. Cynthia Hindes

Visit our website: www.thechristiancommunity.org

1st Sunday after Easter, 2020, Open the Door

1^st Sunday after Easter
John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!”And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy, the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on, you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offenses.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.” And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”


1st Sunday after Easter
April 19, 2020
John 20: 19-29

A door presupposes a wall. The door frame, the threshold, is an opening in what is otherwise a barrier between one side and the other.  But the door itself can be opened or closed, even locked. It is a metaphor for choice: Open? Closed? When locked, it becomes like the wall itself – a barrier.

The disciples had kept the doors locked for fear of the authorities. The locked doors were also metaphors for the state of their hearts locked in fear. But Christ had said of Himself, “I AM the Door.” He himself became the entrance to the locked room, to their closed hearts. He enters the room, enters them, bringing with him a deep atmosphere of peace. And the disciples recognize and receive His healing spirit. Eight days later, he will show to Thomas other more intimate doorways. He will show him His own wounds, the doorways through which

Grunewald

He was assaulted. He accepted them, suffered them, so that in His descent into hell, they too could be transformed into doorways of light. Light, warmth, and life now radiate from His wounds, light that can germinate trust within human hearts, light for our path forward. And so the poet advises us:

Open the door of your heartaches.
And step through the door of your betrayal.
Pass through the hole that is left in your heart
Pass through because it is a door.
… Open the door.

Grunewald

….
Anything that needs us, or calls us to God is a door.
…Open the door.
….
Same old story - all strong souls all first go to hell
Before they do the healing of the world they came here for.

Open the door.*

* Clarissa Pinkola Estes, “Abre La Puerta, Open the Door”

Posted by Cynthia Hindes

2nd Easter 2019, Breath Is Resurrection

2^nd Easter

John 20: 19-29, adapted from Madsen

Tissot

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offenses.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Tissot

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2^nd Easter

April 28, 2019

John 20: 19-29

Our breathing is in two parts: we inhale. We take in not only life-giving oxygen, but also moods, atmospheres, inspirations. And when we exhale, we add our own moods and inspirations to the atmosphere. Our spent breath nourishes the plants.

Sombart

The disciples had been holding their breath in fear and sorrow. The locked door was an image of their hearts, closed in fear. But Christ enters anyway. He breathes on them. After his own ordeal, imprinted into his hands and his side, he exhales an atmosphere of joy and peace. His healing breath, the loving exhalation of his spirit, gives us the strength and power to work in a positive way with destiny. He gives us all the strength to do the work of repair.

Thomas is not wrong to want to experience Christ directly himself. Christ only warns him against being rigid of heart. When Thomas has satisfied his healthy skepticism, he opens his own heart, so that Christ’s healing, loving power can enter.

Since His resurrection, Christ’s power is available in every breath we take. For He inhabits the earth, the air, as His body. As the poet says:

It's not magic; it isn't a trick.

Every breath is a resurrection.*

---

* Gregory Orr, in Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved. Picture from the Egbert Codex – The Incredulity of Thomas.

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2nd Easter 2017, Inside and Outside

2nd Easter

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

Duccio, Maestra Altar

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again, he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2nd Easter

April 23, 2017

John 20: 19-29

If I were to say that there is a big red thing hovering above the altar, you would naturally look to see it. Unless you could see it yourself, your natural reaction would be disbelief; and perhaps you might begin to distrust my sanity! For our perceptions are based on what we can see, hear, taste, touch.

Thomas questions whether what his fellows report could be real. Like us, he needs to verify it with his own experience. And Christ rewards his healthy skepticism. 'Stretch out your finger and see, stretch out your hand and put it inside,' He says. 'Trust in my power in your own heart.'

Overbeck

Christ asks Thomas, asks all of us, to stretch out our powers of perception, to expand the ways in which we see, hear, touch. This expansion is to move in both directions: outward, toward the world, and inward, toward the faculties of the heart. We are to begin to perceive beyond the merely material sensory world. We are to expand our awareness, open ourselves to other levels of being.

These levels are both higher and deeper. They are both within the world and within us. For Christ and His Healing Spirit of Love is here, now, on the earth. It is planted as a seed within our hearts, for us to nourish and grow. He gives us the strength to grapple with our old habitual ways of seeing, our rigidity of heart. He gives us the strength to bear and work creatively with our destiny.

Finding Christ's power within our hearts gives us the trust and peace that moves us beyond our ordinary way of understanding. Through Christ, worlds open up.

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2nd Easter 2017, Obey Thy Heart

2nd Easter

Artist unknown

Apr 3, 2016

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

Rembrandt, WikiCommons

2nd Easter

Apr 3, 2016

John 20: 19-29

In some cultures, it is customary that the birthday celebrant him or herself is the one to give out gifts to those celebrating with him. 

And so it is with The Risen One. After giving birth to his Resurrection Body on Easter, he proceeds to give his disciples a gift. He breathes the healing spirit of love into them. They are to work with this healing spiritual power in a way that strengthens others. 

To those who err, who fail, the disciples are to give strength, so that they can wrestle themselves out from under the burden of sin. They are to give them strength so that they can bear the consequences of their offenses. In Christ’s eyes sin is our failure to hit the target; it comes from our aiming too high, or falling short, or veering away from our true moral goals. And with the healing spirit, Christ came to help.

Thomas was not there the first Easter Sunday; the gospels do not say why. Was he perhaps afraid, and still in hiding? In any case, he apparently had the habit of fact-checking. Like many of us, he wanted to be sure, to have the evidence of his own senses rather than to believe the impossible on mere hearsay. And the Risen One gladly grants his request. It is as though He understands the value of a healthy skepticism. Reach out and see…

But at the same time, Christ warns against a heart that is rigid and untrusting; a heart that could say, despite evidence to the contrary, that it is still impossible. Such a heart cannot enter into relationship with Christ. In fact, for all his holding back, Thomas achieves a high degree of recognition and knowledge. Peter recognized the promised Messiah in Jesus; in the Risen One, Thomas recognizes Lord and God. As Emerson said,

Give all to love;

Obey thy heart;

…

’T is a brave master;

Let it have scope:

Follow it utterly,

Hope beyond hope:

…

Souls above doubt,

Valor unbending,

It will reward,—

They shall return

More than they were,

And ever ascending.*

*Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Give All to Love”

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2nd Easter 2015, Open the Door

2nd Easter

Rembrandt, Wikicommons

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2^nd Easter

April 12, 2015

John 20: 19 – 29

A door presupposes a wall. The door frame, the threshold, is an opening in what is otherwise a barrier between one side and the other.  But the door itself can be opened or closed, even locked. It is a metaphor for choice: Open? Closed? When locked it becomes like the wall itself – a barrier.

The disciples had kept the doors lock for fear of the authorities. The locked doors were also metaphors for state of their hearts locked in fear. But Christ had said of Himself, “I AM  the Door.” He himself became the entrance to the locked room, to their closed hearts. He enters the room, enters them, bringing with him a deep atmosphere of peace. And the disciples recognize and receive His healing spirit.

Wm. Holman Hunt, wikicommons

Eight days later he will show to Thomas other more intimate doorways. He will show him His own wounds, the doorways through which He was assaulted. He accepted them, suffered them, so that in His descent into hell, they too could be transformed into doorways of light. Light, warmth and life now radiate from His wounds, light that can germinate trust within human hearts, light for our path forward. And so the poet advises us:

Open the door of your heartaches.

And step through the door of your betrayal.

Pass through the hole that is left in your heart

Pass through because it is a door.

… Open the door.

….

Anything that needs us, or calls us to God is a door.

…Open the door.

….

Same old story –all strong souls all first go to hell

Before they do the healing of the world they came here for.

Open the door.[1]

Visit our website!

---

[1] Clarissa Pinkola Estes, “Abre La Puerta, Open the Door”

2nd Easter 2007, Risen Sun

2^nd Easter

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2^nd Easter Sunday

April 15, 2007

John 20:19-29

A child of two or three is absorbed with learning about the sense world, exploring and naming things. But around four, there comes a moment when the child will close its eyes and say, ‘I can see pictures’. An inner eye opens, and the faculty of picture-making, of imagination, day-dreaming, and ultimately of memory is born. Some children can then also image real beings that cannot be seen with outer eyes.

The disciples of Christ spent three years with Him, getting to know him in the sense world. They learned to name Him. After the great panorama of His tragic death, He was lost to their ordinary sight. But their love for Him had readied them to see Him with the imaging faculty of their hearts. He comes to them, and they see Him with the eye of the heart.

In His coming, He gives them a task: He breathes into them holy, healing Spirit, in order that they may work in a strengthening, healing way in the destinies of those whom they meet. Their hearts are to be open, filled with trust in His power, so that they may also see Him at work in the lives of others. They begin to trust in His power working in their hearts, in others, as a new capacity of seeing.

Poet Denise Levertov describes this moment of awakening in her poem about St. Thomas, who says:

But when my hand

Led by His hand’s firm clasp

Entered the unhealed wound,

My fingers encountering

Rib-bone and pulsing heat,

What I felt was…

…light, light streaming

Into me, over me, filling the room…

I witnessed

all things quicken to color, to form,

My question

Not answered, but given

Its part

In a vast unfolding design lit

By a risen sun.[1]

The Act of Consecration of Man is also a picture of Christ’s working. Gathered in prayer, we receive Him in the inner room of our heart. We see Him offering thanks to His Father. We see Him uniting His soul with bread, with water and wine. We feel His touch. He breathes His peace into us so that we too can work in a healing way in the lives of others, ‘in a vast unfolding design, lit by a risen sun’

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[1] Denise Levertov, “St. Thomas Didymus”, in The Stream and the Sapphire, p. 81