Doesn't the scene desribed in today's gospel reading appear to be a picture of the current status of many so-called believers? Today there are many who have heard the testimony of others who lives have been touched by God. Nevertheless, the adherence to the faith seems greatly dimihished. Like those gathered in the famous "upper room," many today, we might say, are not convinced that Jesus is present to them just as he was to his followers immediately after his Resurrection.
For some the presence of God seems to be of little importance for daily life. Faith seems to have fallen victim to current cultural ideas and practices that do not put too much stress upon the importance of a close relationship to the Creator and the Redeemer. Taking time from a usually filled daily schedule to pray, to be present with God, is not perceived as critically important.
We are disciples of the risen Jesus. Yet, can we not ask ourselves a simple question: "How do I bring my conviction that Jesus Christ is my redeemer to others?" As disciples seeking to be emissaries of the Easter gifts we have received, shouldn't we be seen as women and men alive with hope, alive with faith?
The followers of Jesus had much mental and emotional adjusting to make on Easter Sunday. What did "risen from the dead" mean for them? What did it mean to those disciples who had not yet seen the risen Jesus when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary told them that they had seen Jesus? It was true: he had risen from the dead. He was back among them, walking and talking. It was more than a game of mirrors or smoke. It was a true challenge to them to believe that Jesus was among them again in real flesh with real human features. Some of us today for it a challenge that these disciples did not understand it? Why? Perhaps we don't fully understand the magnitude of the mystery. How many of us truly fully understand that the consecrated host held up for our adoration at the Consecration of the Mass is truly Jesus present to us? body and blood, soul and divinity? What does it mean when we hear the words "This is the lamb of God"?
Easter mysteries offer abundant graces to those who are willing to take the risk of believing or trying to believe. To believe that nothing is impossible for God is undoubtedly one of the faith challenges to our contemporary world. Believing may be very difficult because to believe brings us to the very core of our being. Fr. Henri Nouwen had a few words that might relate to this.
What is most intimate is also what frightens us most.
Where wer are most ourselves, we are often strangers to ourselves.
That is the painful part of being human ....
The mystery of the spiritual life is that Jesus desires to meet us
in the seclusion of our own heart,
to make his love known to us there,
to free us from our fears and
to make our own deepest self known to us.
(Words of Hope and Healing, p 7)
