April 15, 2012: 2nd Sunday of Easter

This photo shows the first page of Mother Theodore's journal.

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 nail marks 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. (John 20:19-31)

Maybe you sometimes wonder about the many other signs that Jesus did that “are not written in this book.” I know I do.
Do you know that the first gospels were only written down many years after Jesus was crucified? Because there was no Internet, or even a printing press at that time, the persons who wrote them down had to remember what they had heard about Jesus’ death and how it happened.
Try to think about what your faith might be like if you did not know anything about Jesus? He is very central to our faith, and yet it is because of the ability of those persons from long ago to remember and write down what they know about him, that we know who Jesus is in our lives.

Action:

Perhaps it might be interesting, and valuable for you, to begin to train your memory so that you will be able to remember things. (Memory is a very important thing.) Perhaps you could begin by making a small list tonight about what you remember the priest said at Mass about the gospel. Then do that each Sunday for a month. Then look back at that list–and ask yourself whether you remember all of those things. If you do this for a few months, you will be surprised how much you have trained your memory to really “remember.”