This week's reflection
SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER (DIVINE MERCY)
EXPERIENCING THE RISEN LORD
The picture of the early church which Luke paints for us is a striking one.
Everything is shared in common and it seems that Luke is at pains to highlight
the radical difference the encounter with Jesus Risen made in their lives.
What must other people have thought about this new group in Jerusalem? One minute they were a rabble, a rudderless ship after their leader Jesus was killed.
Now they were found united sharing their faith and their goods. They were now respected, and their leaders were fearlessly giving witness that Jesus was not dead but alive. At times people look at the difference between the early church’s experience and our experience and wonder why things seem to have gone off the boil.
What keeps us from letting the new life of Easter change our lives? Part of the
answer lies in our own hearts. We can be afraid of allowing Jesus to enter into
our lives and change us so radically. As John knows all too well, it’s not the
world that is the biggest obstacle for the person of faith, it’s our own heart and the
defences we have established there! There is a journey that must be made that no
one else can make for us.
The witness of the other disciples cannot substitute for Thomas his own experience of Jesus as the Risen One. When Jesus stands before him there is no more need for defences, no need to test what he knows to be true. Now, he too, can begin to live.
Christopher Monaghan CP
The picture of the early church which Luke paints for us is a striking one.
Everything is shared in common and it seems that Luke is at pains to highlight
the radical difference the encounter with Jesus Risen made in their lives.
What must other people have thought about this new group in Jerusalem? One minute they were a rabble, a rudderless ship after their leader Jesus was killed.
Now they were found united sharing their faith and their goods. They were now respected, and their leaders were fearlessly giving witness that Jesus was not dead but alive. At times people look at the difference between the early church’s experience and our experience and wonder why things seem to have gone off the boil.
What keeps us from letting the new life of Easter change our lives? Part of the
answer lies in our own hearts. We can be afraid of allowing Jesus to enter into
our lives and change us so radically. As John knows all too well, it’s not the
world that is the biggest obstacle for the person of faith, it’s our own heart and the
defences we have established there! There is a journey that must be made that no
one else can make for us.
The witness of the other disciples cannot substitute for Thomas his own experience of Jesus as the Risen One. When Jesus stands before him there is no more need for defences, no need to test what he knows to be true. Now, he too, can begin to live.
Christopher Monaghan CP
