Today's reflection is a sketch, not a full-blown "take" on the readings for this Second Sunday of Easter. This is so I can try to cover way too much ground.
It is important to note that John's Gospel was likely written in the last decade of the first century. This places it 50+ years after Jesus' passion, death, and resurrection. It also bears noting that the written Gospels took the forms in which we now possess them only after eyewitnesses of things these texts seek to hand on began to die. In other words, these are not, at least not in their entirety, firsthand accounts of what they convey
The inspired author places both of the risen Jesus' post-resurrection appearances on the first day of the week, the Lord's Day, Sunday. This is the day that Christians gather to open the word and to break the bread. So, the context of these appearances is the Eucharist.
Since the sacrament of penance is seen to flow from the risen Lord breathing on the twelve and entrusting them with the forgiveness of sins, one can make a connection between penance and Eucharist. Of course, penance is an extension of the baptism. Since the Eucharist is the font, the other six sacraments flow out from and back into it.
Thinking again about what section seven of Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Second Vatican's Council Dogmatic Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy, sets forth about Christ's real presence, it is necessary to highlight that he is really present in the assembly of the baptized.
Notice that Thomas was not present in the assembly the first time Christ appeared. Hence, Thomas "missed" him. But he encountered the Risen One when, the very next week, he was present.
It's interesting that while Jesus invites Thomas to touch the wounds in his hands and even to place his in hand in his side, the Gospel does not tell us that he did so. Certainly, Thomas saw, but did he then feel the need to touch? Resurrection transcends sensory perception. It is not empirically or scientifically demonstrable. It is something, to quote U2, "that has to be believed to be seen." It is a matter of faith.
Faith is not knowledge. And so, the opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty. The central point of today's readings is not only believing in Jesus risen from the dead but loving him without seeing him. A strong belief that you can make arguments in favor of is not knowledge.
Getting back to real presence, we, too, have a real encounter with the risen Lord by participating in the Eucharist. A real encounter, however, is not an immediate encounter. Being sacramental, our encounter with the risen Christ in and through the Eucharist happens mysteriously through the assembly, in the person of the priest, in the proclamation of the scriptures, and under the aspects of bread and wine. It is a mediated encounter, made real by the symbols and signs through which his presence is mediated.
Blessed are those who believe and do not see Jesus risen from the dead, those who do not see him but who love him. What does this look like? Well, our reading from Acts sets this forth, even if in a very idealistic way. Our first reading gives us a glimpse of an assembly of the redeemed, those who love Christ by loving each other and loving their neighbor, seeing him in them, especially in the poor, the outcast, and the neglected.
One final note about suffering: even after his rising from the dead, Jesus continues to bear the wounds of crucifixion. One can say that he is recognizable, as Thomas indicates, by his wounds. As I keep pointing out, keep in mind that it was Thomas who said, as the Lord set out for Judea, where he was in danger of being put to death and where he was, in fact, killed, after the death of his friend Lazarus, "Let us also go to die with him" (John 11:16). It seems that Thomas knew what it was to die with Christ but, like Peter and John in our Gospel for Easter day, "did not yet understand the Scripture that he had to rise from the dead" (John 20:9).
Like all facts, the "fact," such as it is, of resurrection does not convey a meaning in and of itself. "Fact," as the scare quotes indicates, is not a good way to describe or to think about the resurrection because it diminishes its power by making it a fact alongside all the other facts in the world, reducing it to a discrete and static thing that happened a long time ago in a land far away instead of the dynamic mode of Christian life it is and is meant to be. But Thomas gives a profound explanation of its meaning when he says "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).
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