We Are Witnesses Too

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Deacon Tom Writes ©

We Are Witnesses Too

Third Sunday of Easter, Year B

Today’s readings remind us how incredulous the resurrection is to the logical mind. That’s perhaps why both the first reading and the gospel mention that there were eyewitnesses to Christ’s death and resurrection. There were people who saw Jesus die and then saw him back among the living. So alive, in fact, that in the gospel today Jesus is asking his disciples, “Is there anything to eat?”

Hearing the personal narratives of eyewitnesses to history is powerful. Recall some of the stories you may have heard first hand from people who landed on the beaches of Normandy or were at or near the World Trade Center on September 11th. So many perspectives, so many details, and such an overwhelming need to capture these memories and save them for future generations.

Our scriptures today do just that. For 2000 years believers have benefited from hearing the story of Christ’s death and resurrection directly from eyewitness accounts detailed in the scriptures. Does the eyewitness testimony we read in the gospels carry the same weight for us today as it did for those first believers?  Does it for you?  For me, I can honestly identify with Thomas’ statement from last week’s gospel… “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”  After all, “Seeing is believing” as the saying goes, and wouldn’t we all like to see, that is, to comprehend this mystery for ourselves!!!

We all face this struggle. We all struggle with believing in things we haven’t seen. St. Paul tried to teach the Corinthians that the real nature of our faith is summed up by the statement, “We walk by faith, not by sight.”

While we today have no personal eyewitness experience of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are witnesses to the death and resurrection he brings about in us, the death to self, and his raising us to new life in every difficulty and struggle we face over the course of our lives.  These trials and triumphs represent our eyewitness testimonies, those stories of our living faith and how God has been present and worked in our lives.  These are the eyewitness accounts that we bequeath to the generations after us, those who embrace the faith continue to believe as they walk in the light of our faith experiences as they grow in their own so they too walk “by faith and not by sight.”  

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom