Young Adult Reflection
April 11
Greetings from St. Francis:
I hope this reflection finds you living in the grace of the Risen Lord as we continue to celebrate Easter.
Fr. Jim
+ A reading from the holy gospel according to John
On the evening of that first day of the week, even though the disciples had locked the doors of the place where they were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood before them. “Peace be with you,” he said. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. At the sight of the Lord the disciples rejoiced. “Peace be with you,” he said again.
“As the Father has sent me,
so I send you.”
Then he breathed on them and said:
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive men’s sins,
they are forgiven them;
if you hold them bound,
they are held bound.”
It happened that one of the Twelve, Thomas (the name means “Twin”), was absent when Jesus came. The other disciples kept telling him: “We have seen the Lord!” His answer was, “I’ll never believe it without probing the nail-prints in his hands, without putting my finger in the nail-marks and my hand into his side.”
A week later, the disciples were once more in the room, and this time Thomas was with them. Despite the locked doors, Jesus came and stood before them. “Peace be with you,” he said; then, to Thomas: “Take your finger and examine my hands. Put your hand into my side. Do not persist in your unbelief, but believe!” Thomas said in response, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus then said to him:
“You became a believer because you saw me.
Blest are they who have not seen and have believed.”
Jesus performed many other signs as well — signs not recorded here — in the presence of his disciples. But these have been recorded to help you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, so that through this faith you may have life in his name.
This is the gospel of the Lord
REFLECTION:
There is an old story about a young wife who fell very sick and was about to die. “I love you so much,” she said to her husband. “I don’t want to leave you. Promise me you will not remarry when I die. If you do, I will return as a ghost and cause you great misery.”
The young woman died and for many months the heart-broken husband respected her last wish. But then he met a woman of great wisdom and grace. They fell in love and he asked her to marry him; she happily accepted.
The very night they were engaged, he was visited by the ghost of his late wife. The ghost harangued him for seeing another woman. She ridiculed everything that had transpired between him and his new love. She repeated every conversation that took place between them. For many nights the poor man could not sleep because once he put his head down, she would appear and begin to taunt and berate him.
Exhausted and depressed, the man finally confessed to his betrothed about the ghost. She understood immediately what was happening.
“She is a clever ghost,” the woman said. “The next time she appears, make a bargain with her. Tell her that she knows so much that you can hide nothing from her. So tell her that if she can answer one question, you promise to break your engagement with me and remain single.”
“What should I ask her?” the man said.
“Reach into your larder and take out as many beans as your hand can hold. Then ask her to tell you how many beans are in your hand.”
That night, when the ghost appeared, the man did as his fiancée had instructed. He took as many beans as he could hold and challenged the ghost, “You are so wise, tell me how many beans are in my hand.”
And immediately he awoke. The ghost was gone and never appeared again.
His future wife understood that the ghost was the composite of his own doubts and fears and guilt.
The two were married and lived a full and happy life together.
On Easter night Jesus greets his terrified disciples with “Peace.” But the peace of the risen One is not merely the absence of conflict nor the quiet, unchallenged acceptance of others’ expectations. Christ’s peace is the hard work of putting aside our own doubts and fears to imitate his compassion; it is the hard work of pulling ourselves out of our own tombs of despair and anger to live our lives in a spirit of joy and gratitude. The peace of Christ is realized in loving when it is most difficult to love, in putting aside our own disappointments and doubts for the sake of another, in forgiving when we are too angry or disappointed to forgive, in reaching out when we expect to be rebuffed or rejected. The Risen One’s gift of peace is centered in Christ himself: it is the peace that mirrors his selflessness, his compassion, his joy.