Readings:
Acts 2:42-47
Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24
1 Peter 1:3-9
John 20:19-31

Chants

We are children of Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead. Through this wondrous sign of His great mercy, the Father of Jesus has given us new birth, as we hear in today’s Epistle.

Today’s First Reading sketches the “family life” of our first ancestors in the household of God (see 1 Peter 4:17). We see them doing what we still do—devoting themselves to the Apostles’ teaching, meeting daily to pray and celebrate “the breaking of the bread.”

The Apostles saw the Lord. He stood in their midst, showed them His hands and sides. They heard His blessing and received His commission—to extend the Father’s mercy to all peoples through the power and Spirit He conferred upon them.

We must walk by faith and not by sight, must believe and love what we have not seen (see 2 Corinthians 5:7). Yet the invisible realities are made present for us through the devotions the Apostles handed on.

Notice the experience of the risen Lord in today’s Gospel is described in a way that evokes the Mass.

Both appearances take place on a Sunday. The Lord comes to be with His disciples. They rejoice, listen to His Word, receive the gift of His forgiveness and peace. He offers His wounded body to them in remembrance of His Passion. And they know and worship Him as their Lord and their God.

Thomas’ confession is a vow of faith in the new covenant. As promised long before, in the blood of Jesus we can now know the Lord as our God and be known as His people (see Hosea 2:20-25).

This confession is sung in the heavenly liturgy (see Revelation 4:11). And in every Mass on earth we renew our covenant and receive the blessings Jesus promised for those who have not seen but have believed.

In the Mass, God’s mercy endures forever, as we sing in today’s Psalm. This is the day the Lord has made—when the victory of Easter is again made wonderful in our eyes.

_____________________

Saint Augustine (354-430)
Sermon 258

“This is the day the Lord has made” (Ps 118[117],24). Call to mind what the world was like in the beginning: “Darkness covered the abyss while God’s Spirit swept over the waters. Then God said: ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. God then separated the light from the darkness. God called the light ‘day’ and the darkness he called ‘night’” (Gn 1,2f.)… “This is the day the Lord has made.” It is the day the apostle Paul spoke about: “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord” (Eph 5,8)…

Isn’t it true to say that Thomas was a man, one of the disciples, one of the crowd so to speak? His brethren said to him: “We have seen the Lord”. But he said: “Unless I touch him, unless I put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” The evangelists bring you the news and you don’t believe it? The world believed but a disciple did not believe?… The day the Lord has made had not yet happened; darkness still covered the abyss, the depths of darkness of the human heart.

Let him come who is the sign of day, let him come and, without anger, let him who brings healing patiently, gently say: “Come. Come, touch and believe. You declared that: ‘Unless I touch him, unless I put my hand into his side, I will not believe.’ Come, touch, put in your hand and do not be unbelieving but believe. I understand your wounds; it is for you I have kept my scars.”

In putting out his hand this disciples is able to bring his faith to full completion. Indeed, what is faith’s completion? Not to believe that Christ is only man, not even to believe that Christ is only God, but to believe that he is man and God… And so the disciple whom the Saviour granted to touch his bodily members and scars, cried out: “My Lord and my God.” He touched the man, he recognised the God. He touched the flesh, he turned towards the Word, for “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (Jn 1,14).

The Word permitted his flesh to be hung on the wood…; the Word permitted his flesh to be placed in the tomb. The Word raised up his flesh, showed it to the disciples’ face, offered it to their touch. They touched, they cried out: “My Lord and my God!”

This is the day the Lord has made!