DAILY READING and REFLECTIONS For Thursday, July 03, 2014 13th Week in Ordinary Time - Proper (Red) Feast of Saint Thomas, Apostle Readings: Eph 2:19-22; Ps 117:1, 2; John 20:24-29 Response: Go out to all the world and tell the Good News. Rosary: Luminous Mysteries Key Verse: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. SAINT OF THE DAY: Saint Thomas, Apostle Patron of Architects St. Thomas was a Jew, called to be one of the twelve Apostles. He was a dedicated but impetuous follower of Christ. When Jesus said He was returning to Judea to visit His sick friend Lazarus, Thomas immediately exhorted the other Apostles to accompany Him on the trip which involved certain danger and possible death because of the mounting hostility of the authorities. At the Last Supper, when Christ told His Apostles that He was going to prepare a place for them to which they also might come because they knew both the place and the way, Thomas pleaded that they did not understand and received the beautiful assurance that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But St. Thomas is best known for his role in verifying the Resurrection of his Master. Thomas unwillingness to believe that the other Apostles had seen their risen Lord on the first Easter Sunday merited for him the title of doubting Thomas. Eight days later, on Christs second apparition, Thomas was gently rebuked for his scepticism and furnished with the evidence he had demanded - seeing in Christs hands the point of the nails and putting his fingers in the place of the nails and his hand into His side. At this, St. Thomas became convinced of the truth of the Resurrection and exclaimed: My Lord and My God, thus making a public Profession of Faith in the Divinity of Jesus. St. Thomas is also mentioned as being present at another Resurrection appearance of Jesus - at Lake Tiberias when a miraculous catch of fish occurred. This is all that we know about St. Thomas from the New Testament. Tradition says that at the dispersal of the Apostles after Pentecost this saint was sent to evangelize the Parthians, Medes, and Persians; he ultimately reached India, carrying the Faith to the Malabar coast, which still boasts a large native population calling themselves Christians of St. Thomas. He capped his left by shedding his blood for his Master, speared to death at a place called Calamine. His feast day is July 3rd and he is the patron of architects. READINGS FOR THE DAY from the New Jerusalem Bible: READING 1: Ephesians 2:19-22 19 So you are no longer aliens or foreign visitors; you are fellow-citizens with the holy people of God and part of Gods household. 20 You are built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, and Christ Jesus himself is the cornerstone. 21 Every structure knit together in him grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 and you too, in him, are being built up into a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit. RESPONSORIAL PSALM, Psalms 117:1, 2 1 Alleluia! Praise Yahweh, all nations, extol him, all peoples, 2 for his faithful love is strong and his constancy never-ending. GOSPEL, John 20:24-29 24 Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples said to him, We have seen the Lord, but he answered, Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe. 26 Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. Peace be with you, he said. 27 Then he spoke to Thomas, Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe. 28 Thomas replied, My Lord and my God! 29 Jesus said to him: You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. REFLECTIONS: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (To the Greater Glory of God) OPENING PRAYER: Father, you call your children to walk in the light of Christ. Free us from darkness and keep us in the radiance of your truth. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ON READING 1: Ephesians 2:19-22 (Reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in Christ) What is the significance of the calling of the Gentiles to the Church? Their previous situation, separated from Christ (vv. 11-12), has undergone radical change as a result of the Redemption Christ achieved on the Cross: that action has, on the one hand, brought the two peoples together (made peace between them: vv. 13-15) and, on the other, it has reconciled them with God, whose enemy each was (vv. 16-18). The Redemption has given rise to the Church, which St. Paul here describes as a holy temple built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (vv. 19-22). After describing the Redemption wrought by Christ and applied in the Church by the Holy Spirit, St Paul arrives at this conclusion: the Gentiles are no longer strangers; they belong to Christs Church. In the new Israel (the Church) privileges based on race, culture or nationality cease to apply. No baptized person, be he Jew or Greek, slave or free man, can be regarded as an outsider or stranger in the new people of God. All have proper citizenship papers. The Apostle explains this by using two images: The Church is the city of saints, and Gods family or household (cf. 1 Tim 3:15). The two images are complementary: everyone has a family, and everyone is a citizen. In the family context, the members are united by paternal, filial and fraternal links, and love presides; family life has a special privacy. But as a citizen one is acting in a public capacity; public affairs and business must be conducted in a manner that is in keeping with laws designed to ensure that justice is respected. The Church has some of the characteristics of a family, and some of those of a polity (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Eph, ad loc.). The head of the Church is Christ himself, and in his Church are assembled the children of God, who are to live as brothers and sisters, united by love. Grace, faith, hope, charity and the action of the Holy Spirit are invisible realities which forge the links bringing together all the members of the Church, which is moreover something very visible, ruled by the successor of Peter and by the other bishops (cf. Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 8 ), and governed by laws--divine and ecclesiastical--which are to be obeyed. To better explain the Church, the Apostle links the image of the household of God to that of Gods temple and building (cf. 1 Cor 3:9). Up to this he has spoken of the Church mainly as the body of Christ (v. 16). This image and that of a building are connected: our Lord said, Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up (Jn 2:19), and St. John goes on to explain that he was speaking of the temple of his body (Jn 2:21). If the physical body of Christ is the true temple of God because Christ is the Son of God, the Church can also be seen as Gods true temple, because it is the mystical body of Christ. The Church is the temple of God. Jesus Christ is, then, the foundation stone of the new temple of God. Rejected, discarded, left to one side, and done to death --then as now--the Father made him and continues to make him the firm immovable basis of the new work of building. This he does through his glorious resurrection. The new temple, Christs body, which is spiritual and invisible, is constructed by each and every baptized person on the living cornerstone, Christ, to the degree that they adhere to him and grow in him towards the fullness of Christ. In this temple and by means of it, the dwelling place of God in the Spirit, he is glorified, by virtue of the holy priesthood which offers spiritual sacrifices (1 Pet 2:5), and his kingdom is established in the world. The apex of the new temple reaches into heaven, while, on earth, Christ, the cornerstone, sustains it by means of the foundation he himself has chosen and laid down--the apostles and prophets (Eph 2: 20) and their successors, that is, in the first place, the college of bishops and the rock, Peter (Mt 16: 18 ) (Bl. John Paul II, Homily at Orcasitas, Madrid, 3 November 1981). Christ Jesus is the stone: this indicates his strength; and he is the cornerstone because in him the two peoples, Jews and Gentiles, are joined together (cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Eph, ad loc.). The Church is founded on this strong, stable bedrock; this cornerstone is what gives it its solidity. St. Augustine expresses his faith in the perennial endurance of the Church in these words: The Church will shake if its foundation shakes, but can Christ shake? As long as Christ does not shake, so shall the Church never weaken until the end of time (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 103). Every faithful Christian, every living stone of this temple of God, must stay fixed on the solid cornerstone of Christ by cooperating in his or her own sanctification. The Church grows when Christ is, after a manner, built into the souls of men and grows in them, and when souls also are built into Christ and grow in him; so that on this earth of our exile a great temple is daily in course of building, in which the divine majesty receives due and acceptable worship (Pius XII, Mediator Dei, 6). ON THE GOSPEL: John 20:24-29 (Jesus Appears to the Disciples) Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas and the Gospel speaks to us about the encounter of Jesus with Thomas, the apostle who wanted to see in order to believe. For this reason many call him Thomas the incredulous. In reality the message of this Gospel is very diverse. It is much more profound and actual. Thomas doubting moves our Lord to give him special proof that His risen body is quite real. By so doing He bolsters the faith of those who would later on find faith in Him. Surely you do not think, Pope St. Gregory the Great comments, that is was a pure accident that the chosen disciple was missing; who on his return was told about the appearance and on hearing about it doubted; doubting, so that he might touch and believe by touching? It was not an accident; God arranged that it should happen. His clemency acted in this wonderful way so that through the doubting disciple touching the wounds in His Masters body, our own wounds of incredulity might be healed. And so the disciple, doubting and touching, was changed into a witness of the truth of the Resurrection (In Evangelia Homiliae, 26, 7). Thomas reply is not simply an exclamation: it is an assertion, an admirable act of faith in the divinity of Christ: My Lord and my God! These words are an ejaculatory prayer often used by Christians, especially as an act of faith in the real presence of Christ in the Blessed Eucharist. • John 20, 24-25: The doubt of Thomas. Thomas, one of the twelve was not present when Jesus appeared to the disciples the week before. He did not believe in the witness of the others who said: “We have seen the Lord”. He gives some conditions: “Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe”. Thomas is very demanding. In order to believe he wants to see! He does not want a miracle in order to believe. No! He wants to see the signs on the hands, on the feet and on the side! He does not believe in the glorious Jesus, separated from the human Jesus who suffered on the Cross. When John writes, at the end of the first century, there were some persons who did not accept the coming of the Son of God in the flesh (2 Jn 7; 1 Jn 4, 2-3). They were the Gnostics who despised matter and the body. John presents this concern of Thomas to criticize the Gnostics: “To see in order to believe”. The doubt of Thomas also makes us see the difficulty of believing in the Resurrection! • John 20, 26-27: Do not be unbelieving but believe. The text says “six days later”. That means that Thomas was capable of maintaining his opinion during a whole week against the witness of the other Apostles. Stubborn! Thank God, for us! Thus, six days later, during the community meeting, they once again had the profound experience of the presence of the risen Lord in their midst. The closed doors could not prevent the presence of Jesus in the midst of those who believe in him. Today, it is also like this. When we are meeting, even when we are meeting with the doors closed, Jesus is in our midst. And up until today, the first word of Jesus is and will always be: “Peace be with you!” What impresses is the kindness of Jesus. He does not criticize, nor does he judge the unbelief of Thomas, but he accepts the challenge and says: “Thomas, put your finger in the hole of my hands!” Jesus confirms the conviction of Thomas and of the communities, that is, the glorious Risen One is the tortured crucified One! The Jesus who is in the community is not a glorious Jesus who has nothing in common with our life. He is the same Jesus who lived on this earth and on his body he has the signs of his Passion. The signs of the Passion are found today in the sufferings of people, in hunger, in the signs of torture, of injustice. And Jesus becomes present in our midst in the persons who react, who struggle for life and who do not allow themselves to be disheartened. Thomas believes in this Christ and so do we! • John 20, 28-29: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Together with him we say: “My Lord and my God!” This gift of Thomas is the ideal attitude of faith. And Jesus completes with a final message: “You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe!” With this phrase, Jesus declares blessed all of us who find ourselves in the same condition: without having seen, we believe that Jesus, who is in our midst, is the same One who died crucified! Pope St. Gregory the Great explains these words of our Lord as follows: By St. Paul saying faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things unseen (Hebrews 11:1), it becomes clear that faith has to do with things which are not seen, for those which are seen are no longer the object of faith, but rather of experience. Well then, why is Thomas told, when he saw and touched, Because you have seen, you have believed? Because he saw one thing, and believed another. It is certain that mortal man cannot see divinity; therefore, he saw the man and recognized Him as God, saying, My Lord and my God. In conclusion: seeing, he believed, because contemplating that real man he exclaimed that He was God, whom he could not see (In Evangelia Homiliae, 27, 8 ). Like everyone else Thomas needed the grace of God to believe, but in addition to this grace he was given an exceptional proof; his faith would have had more merit had he accepted the testimony of the other Apostles. Revealed truths are normally transmitted by word, by the testimony of other people who, sent by Christ and aided by the Holy Spirit, preach the deposit of faith (cf. Mark 16:15-16). So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes from the preaching of Christ (Romans 10:17). The preaching of the Gospel, therefore, carries with it sufficient guarantees of credibility, and by accepting that preaching man offers the full submission of his intellect and will to God who reveals, willingly assenting to the revelation given (Vatican II, Dei Verbum, 5). What follows pleases us greatly: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. For undoubtedly it is we who are meant, who confess with our soul Him whom we have not seen in the flesh. It refers to us, provided we live in accordance with the faith, for only he truly believes who practices what the believes (In Evangelia Homiliae, 26, 9). The mandate: “As the Father sent me so I am sending you!” From this Jesus, who was crucified and rose from the dead, we receive the mission, the same one which he has received from the Father (Jn 20, 21). Here, in the second apparition, Jesus repeats: “Peace be with you!” This repetition stresses the importance of Peace. To construct peace forms part of the mission. Peace means much more than the absence of war. It means to construct a harmonious human living together in which persons can be themselves, having everything necessary to live, living happily together in peace. This was the mission of Jesus and also our own mission. Jesus breathed and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20, 22). And with the help of the Holy Spirit we will be capable to fulfil the mission which he has entrusted to us. Then Jesus communicates the power to forgive sins: “If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained!” The central point of the mission of peace is reconciliation, in the effort of trying to overcome barriers which separate us. This power of reconciling and of forgiving is given to the community (Jn 20, 23); Mt18, 18). In the Gospel of Matthew, this power is also given to Peter (Mt 16, 19). Here we can perceive that a community without pardon and without reconciliation is not a Christian community. In one word, our mission is that of “forming community” according to the example of the community of the Father, of the Son and the Holy Spirit. FINAL PRAYERS: Praise Yahweh, all nations, extol him, all peoples, for his faithful love is strong and his constancy never-ending. (Ps 117) Dear God, Remove all doubts from our hearts and deliver us from those who would lead other than to your Holy Words. Give us the faith that is in all your children that we may carry your name as anchor to our worthless lives and earn a blessed place in your kingdom with all your angels and saints. Cure our blindness that we may see the wisdom in your words. This we ask in the name of Jesus, Your Son. Amen. Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ. -- St. Jerome The Father uttered one Word; that Word is His Son, and He utters Him forever in everlasting silence; and in silence the soul has to hear it. -- St. John of the Cross
Posted on: Wed, 02 Jul 2014 22:10:01 +0000
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