Deacon Tom Writes,
We Are Witnesses Too!
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 a horrific death
on Friday and then saw him among the living walking the shores of
Galilee and with His disciples on the road to Emmaus soon afterward. So alive,
in fact, that in the gospel today Jesus is asking his disciples, “Have you anything here 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, that
when we encounter people with rich experiences we tend 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? No matter how strong our faith, we
tend to have a little Thomas within us; we tend to believe and yet there
remains some doubt echoing in our mind. Who wouldn’t like a little sign from
above, the answer to a heartfelt pray that brings reconciliation to a bad
relationship, healing to a chronic illness, peace to the troubled waters of our
lives. In different ways we carry that same doubt that Thomas experienced when
he made it known to the first princes of the Church, “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 Christ has remained present to us and has continued
working 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
Image Credit: cliftondiocese.com_Braking of the Bread
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