SECOND SUNDAY IN EASTER: A. Mar 30, 2008

Acts 2: 42-47 Psalm: 118 1 Pet 1: 3-9 John 20:19‑-31

1. Many man and women who studied in the RCIA were baptised or received into the church at the Easter Vigil. How many of them will stay? How many will drop by the wayside? The late Pope, John Paul II said that if they only received Doctrine, if they only received the



Catholic catechism, you will loose more than 50%. However, if you built the RCIA around the Eucharist, then that faith community will both grow and flourish.

2. Our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles is precisely a proof of this. Faith in the first place did not grow in a vacuum. It was nourished in a Community. This community grew around the Eucharist. We hear that twice in that short first reading. They gathered together for the breaking of the Bread, that is how the Eucharist was described in the Early church.

That faith Community had difficulties. There was greed and jealousy, there was self-centredness and racial tension. There was the problem of what really was the Christian Identity. Yet the Community grew through the Apostolic teaching, around the Eucharist, and through prayer.

3. The Letter of Peter speaks of the same faith. The language and theme of the letter shows that it was written a couple of decades after Peter himself died in the Nero Persecution. However this letter written by probably a disciple of Peter is a newsletter for the Community encouraging them to hold on to the faith in spite of difficulties. It is a letter bubbling over with joy and enthusiasm.

It speaks of a Faith that is alive in spite of internal difficulties as mentioned above and the external ones that came from Persecutions. These brought imprisonment and even death as in the case of both Peter and Paul. These trials were the test of fire which purified their faith as fire purifies gold.

4. It is this beautiful backdrop for our Gospel reading, - the story of Thomas who does not believe. I will not believe unless I can see and touch. However, it is not merely “I-told-you-so” story of 2000 years ago. Many of us are in the same boat as Thomas in this matter. One wise theologian from St. Louis, Mo. has said, many of us continue to live in Easter wearing the glasses of Good Friday.

If God was so wise and powerful, should not have God found a better way of saving the world?

Or to put it more concretely: I will believe in God

if God cures a loved one from Cancer

if God will stop the floods and natural disasters

if God will stop the genocide in Dafur and Afghanistan, in Palestine and Israel.

Or we cut ourselves away from the believing community because of scandals of sexual abuse, because of the arrogance or affluence of those in authority, or because of the red tape and bureaucracy in the Chancery to name a few.

5. These are the elements that constitute our faith being tested by fire in the second reading today. The test faces us to ask ourselves do I believe in Jesus or am I distracted by “pomp and circumstance.”

The “doubts of Thomas” is/are a source of consolation in our own chaos and confusion. Benedict XVI has said the story of Thomas is important for our faith lives so soon after Easter.

• First, it says that it is alright to live through doubts and dis-beliefs. If Thomas the Apostle could have these doubts and he had actually seen, talked and lived with Jesus, - then we should not fear doubts ourselves.
   
• Second, it is through doubts and uncertainties that we can come to clarity. We test and try and stay with what really matters.
   
• Third, the words of Jesus tell us that we can and should persevere in our quest for the truth. Sometime these will hit rough spots but in the long run, Jesus is there with us on the journey.

Billy Graham’s Suit.

Billy Graham is now 86 years old with Parkinson's disease. Leaders in Charlotte, North Carolina, invited Billy Graham, to honour him.

Dr. Graham stepped to the rostrum, looked at the crowd, and said, 'I'm reminded today of Albert Einstein, the great physicist. Einstein was once travelling from Princeton when the conductor came to check the tickets. When he came to Einstein, Einstein couldn't find his ticket.

The conductor said, 'Dr. Einstein, I know who you are. I'm sure you bought a ticket. Don't worry about it.' Einstein nodded appreciatively and said, 'Young man, I too, know who I am. What I don't know is where I'm going.''

Having said that Billy Graham continued, 'See the suit I'm wearing? It's a brand new suit. My wife, my children, and my grandchildren are telling me I've gotten a little slovenly in my old age. So I went out and bought a new suit for this luncheon and one more occasion.

You know what that occasion is? This is the suit in which I'll be buried. But when you hear I'm dead, I don't want you to immediately remember the suit I'm wearing. I want you to remember this:

I not only know who I am.. I also know where I'm going.'

Now that, my friends is Faith. It came through many doubts, fears and uncertainties in Billy Graham’s life. That is the faith tested often by fire.