Reflection for Second Sunday of Easter (Year A)…
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Readings for Acts 2:42-47 |
Encountering the Lord where we are at…
The doors were closed and the disciples were afraid. But Jesus comes and stands among them. It reinforces that locked doors, or even locked hearts, are no obstacle to the Lord’s coming. He will find a way to enter the space where we have chosen to retreat and he will empower us to rise above what is holding us back. The risen Lord stands ready to breathe new life into us. He never ceases to recreate us and to renew us in his love. Easter is the season when we celebrate the good news that the power of the risen Lord is stronger than whatever weakness or discouragement might afflict us.
Thomas was unmoved by the witness of the disciples who said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas was one of those people who insisted on certain conditions being met before he makes a move, “Unless I see.., unless I touch…”
Jesus took Thomas on Thomas’ own terms. He accommodated himself to Thomas’ conditions, “Put your finger here…” The gospel reading today implies that Jesus meets us wherever we are at. He takes us seriously in all our fears and doubts. The Lord is prepared to stand on our ground, whatever that ground is, and from there he will speak to us a word that is suited to our own state of mind and heart. We don’t have to take ourselves to some particular place in order for the Lord to engage with us. He takes himself to where we are, whether it is a place of fear or of doubt.
Let us pray this Easter season for the openness to receive the Lord’s coming into the concrete circumstances of our own lives, so that with Thomas, we too can say, “My Lord and my God.”
Let us pray also that, like the Lord, we would receive others where they are at, rather than where we would like them to be.
– Fr Malachy Flanagan SMA
Blackrcok Road, Cork
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