READING OF THE DAY First Reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles Acts 4:32-35
The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need.
Second Reading from the First Letter of John 1 Jn 5:1-6
Beloved: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God, and everyone who loves the Father loves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the children of God when we love God and obey his commandments. For the love of God is this, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome, for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world. And the victory that conquers the world is our faith. Who indeed is the victor over the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood. The Spirit is the one that testifies, and the Spirit is truth.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY From the Gospel according to John Jn 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER He was stubborn. But the Lord precisely wanted a stubborn person to make us understand something greater. Thomas saw the Lord, he was invited to put his finger into the wound made by the nail, to put his hand into Jesus’s side. And he did not say: “It is true: the Lord has risen!” No! He went beyond. He said: “God!” The first of the disciples that make a confession in Christ’s divinity after the Resurrection. And he adored. (Homily, Santa Marta, 3 July 2013)
FAUSTI -His wounds are the source of this peace, they bring back to unity the lost children of God. They are the plagues that heal us (Is 53:5), an ostension of His extreme Love. The hands are the sign of power. With them man does and undoes everything. In His hands lies all the power that the Father has given to the Son. They, which have washed and dried feet, are nailed to the love and service of every lost one. They are those hands from which no one can abduct us (10:28). They are in fact the same as Father's hands. "The Father and I are one" (10:30). His pierced side is Flesh from which we are born, the wound from which we are begotten. In those who look to Him whom they have pierced, a Spirit of grace and consolation is poured out (Zc 12:10). From the crack in the rock that saves us flows the gushing spring, opened in Jerusalem to wash away all sin and impurity (Zc 13:1- 14,8). From there comes the river of living water that gushes forth from the side of the temple. It is an immense river that fertilizes the earth and heals the bitter waters, reviving what has died. All sorts of fruit trees grow on its banks, whose branches do not wither and whose fruits ripen every month; and the fruits are life and the leaves medicine for man (Ez 47, 1-12). "He that thirsteth, come unto me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his breast"(7,37). "That day", towards evening, darkness becomes light (Zc 14:7), like the day "one" of Creation. The disciples, contemplating the hands and the side, the perennial memory of God's love, see the light of the world. They receive everlasting peace and joy. The mission of the brothers is the same as that of the Son, who washed their feet and said: "I gave you an example, that as I did to you, so that you also do" and "I give you a new commandment ... as I loved you, you also love one another"(13:34). The disciples are sent like Him to bear witness to the Love of the Father (3:16). "Father, as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world"(17,18). That is why He has chosen them (15:16). The sending makes the envoys equal of the one who sends them: "He who welcomes the one I will send, welcomes me". (13,20). He who is sent is called to do as He does: to love and wash feet (13:13-17), doing His own works (14:2). Associated with His destiny, He is like the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and bears much fruit (12,24). The mission to the brothers expresses the nature of the son. It is by loving the brother that one becomes son. If the Son is necessarily sent by the Love of the Father toward the brothers, the one who in turn goes toward the brothers knows the love of the Father and becomes a son. The relationship that exists between Jesus and the Father ("As the Father sent me"), is the same that exists between Him and us ("I send you too"). It is like saying: "You are me, if you do what I have done to you. As you have received peace and joy, give peace and joy, forgiving you too". His disciples are not supermen. They are like us, fearful and infidel, marked by frailty and sin. But precisely in this our situation He comes to meet us and saves us.
--> While the others were in the Upper Room, piled up in common fear, Thomas, the twin, dared to go out, despising the danger. With his actions he contradicts his name; he is not in solidarity with them. He doesn't share their fragility and fear. For this reason he excludes himself from others, interrupting the relationship with them. He is the twin of that deepest part of ourselves that does not accept the limit, but, with the force of despair, represses the fear itself, closing in a loneliness as heroic as destructive. He does not believe in life. He lives death as the only possible horizon. The evangelist reserves the expression "having seen the Lord" to the direct testimony of the first disciples. In the story he prefers to emphasize the fact that Jesus comes among them, to be recognised through the Word and the Signs of the Passion imprinted in His Body. In this way He highlights that aspect of faith which is common to them and to us: Visio Dei, vita hominis" : to see God is the life of man. Fire burns, light illuminates: the encounter with the Risen One raises us up. The community lives because it has met the Living One. Transformed into Him by the encounter with Him, it is able to witness Him. It is in fact one with Him and the Father, in the one Love: it has welcomed the Spirit and lives of His Glory, which it testifies to the world. Thomas does not believe those who have seen. He doesn't accept the witness of the Word and of the Spirit: he doesn't recognize the new life of the community and he doesn't insert himself in it. The credibility of the Son and of the Father is entrusted to the brothers who live the communion of mutual love. There we meet the Word becomed Flesh. Thomas wants to "see" and "touch" in order to be part of the twelve, witnesses of the Risen One. To him, as to Paul, this experience will be granted. But what is important, Jesus will say to Thomas, is not having seen Him for that brief period in which He showed Himself. It is not possible for everyone to be in the place where the spring gushes out; but anyone who is thirsty can drink that living water which now flows over the whole earth. Those who were present where it has sprung up, they canalize it up to us with their testimony, so that everyone can quench his thirst. It is together the first and eighth day, that one day without sunset, source of life without end. Everything is illuminated by the light of the Risen One. It is not by chance that the following chapter, which recounts the third manifestation, no longer is indicated any time. By now we always live in that time. In the liturgy, in fact, we begin reading the Gospel with the expression "in that time", because the story re-presents the event to us, making us contemporaries to it. The Eucharist is the place par excellence where one encounters the Risen One. We must "make the Eucharist in all things" (1 Th 5:18), so that our concrete existence may become the true spiritual cult pleasing to God (Rom 12:1). "The disciples were again inside" "Inside" is no longer the place of darkness and of fear, but of communion in peace and in joy, where the fruit of the Spirit blossoms and matures in mission, forgiveness and witness. It is that inside of those who, being sons, are sent to the outside of the world to continue the work of Jesus. In this place, the brothers live the memorial of the Son, who makes them "one" and projects them out, witnesses of the common Father to the whole world. "Peace be with you" The arrival and the greeting of the Lord are referred to as in the previous narration. He addresses to the whole community first of all - He says: 'Peace to you', and now Thomas is also in it.
READING OF THE DAY
RispondiEliminaFirst Reading from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles
Acts 4:32-35
The community of believers was of one heart and mind,
and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they had everything in common.
With great power the apostles bore witness
to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,
and great favor was accorded them all.
There was no needy person among them,
for those who owned property or houses would sell them,
bring the proceeds of the sale,
and put them at the feet of the apostles,
and they were distributed to each according to need.
Second Reading from the First Letter of John
1 Jn 5:1-6
Beloved:
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,
and everyone who loves the Father
loves also the one begotten by him.
In this way we know that we love the children of God
when we love God and obey his commandments.
For the love of God is this,
that we keep his commandments.
And his commandments are not burdensome,
for whoever is begotten by God conquers the world.
And the victory that conquers the world is our faith.
Who indeed is the victor over the world
but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ,
not by water alone, but by water and blood.
The Spirit is the one that testifies,
and the Spirit is truth.
GOSPEL OF THE DAY
From the Gospel according to John
Jn 20:19-31
On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”
Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”
But he said to them,
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands
and put my finger into the nailmarks
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
Now a week later his disciples were again inside
and Thomas was with them.
Jesus came, although the doors were locked,
and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands,
and bring your hand and put it into my side,
and do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me?
Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples
that are not written in this book.
But these are written that you may come to believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that through this belief you may have life in his name.
WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
RispondiEliminaHe was stubborn. But the Lord precisely wanted a stubborn person to make us understand something greater. Thomas saw the Lord, he was invited to put his finger into the wound made by the nail, to put his hand into Jesus’s side. And he did not say: “It is true: the Lord has risen!” No! He went beyond. He said: “God!” The first of the disciples that make a confession in Christ’s divinity after the Resurrection. And he adored. (Homily, Santa Marta, 3 July 2013)
FAUSTI -His wounds are the source of this peace, they bring back to unity the lost children of God. They are the plagues that heal us (Is 53:5), an ostension of His extreme Love.
RispondiEliminaThe hands are the sign of power. With them man does and undoes everything. In His hands lies all the power that the Father has given to the Son. They, which have washed and dried feet, are nailed to the love and service of every lost one.
They are those hands from which no one can abduct us (10:28).
They are in fact the same as Father's hands. "The Father and I are one" (10:30).
His pierced side is Flesh from which we are born, the wound from which we are begotten. In those who look to Him whom they have pierced, a Spirit of grace and consolation is poured out (Zc 12:10).
From the crack in the rock that saves us flows the gushing spring, opened in Jerusalem to wash away all sin and impurity (Zc 13:1- 14,8).
From there comes the river of living water that gushes forth from the side of the temple.
It is an immense river that fertilizes the earth and heals the bitter waters, reviving what has died. All sorts of fruit trees grow on its banks, whose branches do not wither and whose fruits ripen every month; and the fruits are life and the leaves medicine for man (Ez 47, 1-12).
"He that thirsteth, come unto me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his breast"(7,37).
"That day", towards evening, darkness becomes light (Zc 14:7), like the day "one" of Creation. The disciples, contemplating the hands and the side, the perennial memory of God's love, see the light of the world. They receive everlasting peace and joy. The mission of the brothers is the same as that of the Son, who washed their feet and said: "I gave you an example, that as I did to you, so that you also do" and "I give you a new commandment ... as I loved you, you also love one another"(13:34).
The disciples are sent like Him to bear witness to the Love of the Father (3:16).
"Father, as You sent Me into the world, I also sent them into the world"(17,18).
That is why He has chosen them (15:16). The sending makes the envoys equal of the one who sends them: "He who welcomes the one I will send, welcomes me". (13,20).
He who is sent is called to do as He does: to love and wash feet (13:13-17), doing His own works (14:2).
Associated with His destiny, He is like the grain of wheat that falls into the ground and bears much fruit (12,24).
The mission to the brothers expresses the nature of the son. It is by loving the brother that one becomes son.
If the Son is necessarily sent by the Love of the Father toward the brothers, the one who in turn goes toward the brothers knows the love of the Father and becomes a son.
The relationship that exists between Jesus and the Father ("As the Father sent me"), is the same that exists between Him and us ("I send you too"). It is like saying: "You are me, if you do what I have done to you. As you have received peace and joy, give peace and joy, forgiving you too".
His disciples are not supermen. They are like us, fearful and infidel, marked by frailty and sin. But precisely in this our situation He comes to meet us and saves us.
--> While the others were in the Upper Room, piled up in common fear, Thomas, the twin, dared to go out, despising the danger. With his actions he contradicts his name; he is not in solidarity with them. He doesn't share their fragility and fear. For this reason he excludes himself from others, interrupting the relationship with them. He is the twin of that deepest part of ourselves that does not accept the limit, but, with the force of despair, represses the fear itself, closing in a loneliness as heroic as destructive. He does not believe in life. He lives death as the only possible horizon.
RispondiEliminaThe evangelist reserves the expression "having seen the Lord" to the direct testimony of the first disciples. In the story he prefers to emphasize the fact that Jesus comes among them, to be recognised through the Word and the Signs of the Passion imprinted in His Body.
In this way He highlights that aspect of faith which is common to them and to us: Visio Dei, vita hominis" : to see God is the life of man.
Fire burns, light illuminates: the encounter with the Risen One raises us up.
The community lives because it has met the Living One.
Transformed into Him by the encounter with Him, it is able to witness Him.
It is in fact one with Him and the Father, in the one Love: it has welcomed the Spirit and lives of His Glory, which it testifies to the world.
Thomas does not believe those who have seen. He doesn't accept the witness of the Word and of the Spirit: he doesn't recognize the new life of the community and he doesn't insert himself in it.
The credibility of the Son and of the Father is entrusted to the brothers who live the communion of mutual love. There we meet the Word becomed Flesh. Thomas wants to "see" and "touch" in order to be part of the twelve, witnesses of the Risen One. To him, as to Paul, this experience will be granted.
But what is important, Jesus will say to Thomas, is not having seen Him for that brief period in which He showed Himself. It is not possible for everyone to be in the place where the spring gushes out; but anyone who is thirsty can drink that living water which now flows over the whole earth. Those who were present where it has sprung up, they canalize it up to us with their testimony, so that everyone can quench his thirst. It is together the first and eighth day, that one day without sunset, source of life without end.
Everything is illuminated by the light of the Risen One.
It is not by chance that the following chapter, which recounts the third manifestation, no longer is indicated any time. By now we always live in that time. In the liturgy, in fact, we begin reading the Gospel with the expression "in that time", because the story re-presents the event to us, making us contemporaries to it.
The Eucharist is the place par excellence where one encounters the Risen One.
We must "make the Eucharist in all things" (1 Th 5:18), so that our concrete existence may become the true spiritual cult pleasing to God (Rom 12:1).
"The disciples were again inside" "Inside" is no longer the place of darkness and of fear, but of communion in peace and in joy, where the fruit of the Spirit blossoms and matures in mission, forgiveness and witness.
It is that inside of those who, being sons, are sent to the outside of the world to continue the work of Jesus.
In this place, the brothers live the memorial of the Son, who makes them "one" and projects them out, witnesses of the common Father to the whole world. "Peace be with you" The arrival and the greeting of the Lord are referred to as in the previous narration. He addresses to the whole community first of all - He says: 'Peace to you', and now Thomas is also in it.