Fr. Charlie’s Homily – 2^nd Sunday of Easter – April 11, 2021 9:30 am

As we read in John’s gospel, there’s a whole purpose that centers itself on that quote we used to see at a lot of sporting events, John 3:16.  That God so loved the world, that He sent His only Son that those who believe in Him might not die but might have eternal life.  So over and over and over again in this gospel, you see that being repeated:  with the woman at the well – trying to take her to deeper faith; the man born blind; Lazarus.  And so, in these last couple weeks, we had the moment where Peter and John are running out to the tomb and John,  the beloved disciple looks in first and believes.

Now when John is writing his gospel, when he talks about beloved disciple, he’s talking about us – our personal faith.  Do we see and believe?  And then the church comes and gathers us in that belief.  But, the more and significant and important element is the belief of the individual person which then contrasts with today’s gospel. 

Unless you know Greek,  we used to translate it as Thomas, the “twin.”  But now, for some reason, we use Didymus.  And the idea is, are we the beloved disciple, or are we twins of Thomas?  Are we his twin?  And the way we approach our belief, our faith – ‘unless I can touch the wounds in his hands and put my hand in the wound in his side, I will not believe.’
And that’s the challenge for all of us today:  are we the beloved disciple or are we the twin.  And coming to that faith, we should realize Jesus is inaugurating a whole new creation.  We become partakers of it through our baptism.  Notice the words he uses:  ‘Shalom.  Peace be with you.  Receive the Holy Spirit.’

Let’s go back to that Genesis story.  Remember, there was the chaos of the waters of creation.  And the Spirit breathed over those waters and creation came forth.

So, now we have, after that was destroyed, and the shalom, peace, by our introducing sin into the world, setting ourselves up against God, so now Jesus, through his death and resurrection is allowing us to enter into that kingdom.  And it’s important in this day and age that we focus on that, because what’s happening, in my view, in the world today, is that because the belief in religion:  notice in the Pugh/Gallup poll whatever it was, said that now 50% of Americans do not have religion.  Maybe there’s a spirituality to their lives or a purpose, but they do not have a religious belief.  Well, if you don’t have the truth from which you are working, then you can create your own truth. 
 
And this is exactly what’s happening.  We’re pursuing politics with religious fervor.  Going on through (untelligible)  You’ve got those that keep attacking socialism.  Did you listen to that first reading?  The Acts of the Apostles, actually we read in the second reading, that it’s there where we are…people in the early church were selling their properties to make sure that the needs were all taken care of.  If you read that Acts of the Apostles – they made sure that the needs of the widows and orphans and the aliens; that they were taken care of.  And those Christians came to be known because of their love for one another.
 
This is what caused so many people – the number of people coming into Christianity; Peter preaches the first day, 3000 are baptized.  But in that early times, in spite of the persecution and the martyrdom people were so attracted to that.

And then, you go to the other side of political spectrum and you wonder how could anyone end life, understanding as we do, that God is the one who is our Creator and we, created in His image, respect from the moment of conception, respect and reverence that gift of life.
Today if you kick your dog, you can end up in jail.  But, what it comes down to – understanding that this idea that I have this right to abortion, again, we’re not gonna win that battle, in the legal form, in the civic form.  It’s when we get people to understand that God is the center; creation is God’s gift to us that we cherish, we reverence creation.  That through all these moments, we just need to recognize that being of the new creation, we have a whole different vision.

Jesus got into the same trouble.  If you remember when Pilate asked, “are you a king?”  He says, “I’m not a king of this order, not a king of this world.”  He is the king of this new order that is announced today in this gospel, and this is where we should be focusing our attention. 
What is of the truth?  What is of Christ?  And we are doing everything we can to continue that gift of his faith.  And we go forth.  And we say, like Thomas,  and doubt no more, ‘My Lord and My God.’  Blessed are those who have not seen, but believe. 

This is John’s gospel and it’s a challenge for us in our day and time.  I don’t think we’re gonna end the division that’s going on in the world; the breaking apart of the world from top down.  I think it’s gonna have to begin around this table, as we celebrate, as we gather and seek deep communion with this Christ who is trying to take us to the Father’s kingdom.  That through that communion, through that union, we bring about this kingdom of God; the kingdom of justice and peace; the kingdom of love of all, and we pray for that grace today.