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Readings for the Second Sunday of Easter
"We have seen the Lord!" What a joyful and faith filled post Easter statement John provides in today's reading. In an age when many people view faith as primarily a private matter, the communal, shared faith in which the early Christians shared a common life, selling all their belongings, and praying together might appear idealized and simple to our post modern minds.
Clearly, most of us relate more easily to Thomas-how do we believe without evidence, solely on the witness of writings from 2,000 years ago? It challenges us, and yet we long for this firm and certain faith that provides answers, giving a clear meaning to our lives on this planet, providing guidelines on how to live with each other in peace.
What have we lost and gained in the intervening years between Christ living on earth and the formation of the church as an eschatological community? It takes effort to recognize the spiritual reality that the resurrected Christ is still with us, Easter is the high point of our faith, and that, yes, Christ will come again to bring all of us to our ultimate fulfillment in him.
A spiritual person who works in maintenance at our building stopped to talk about the tsunami in Japan and the unrest in Libya and much of the Middle East. As he continued working, he commented, "Well, we are living in the end times." I responded as I walked away, "It sure feels like it."
Does it take an advanced academic degree to recognize that the natural disasters and political injustices of our unsettled world are probably a good deal like those of the ancient world? We live in faith as did the first Christians, longing for the promises of Christ as he continues to reveal himself in our own "locked rooms."
As post-Easter and post-modern Christians it is good to reflect on the beautiful language in 1 Peter on our ultimate goal, "the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time." God has revealed himself to us through "the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you by the power of God [are] safeguarded through faith."
And we are offered again at Easter Christ's healing presence in reconciliation: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.....do not be unbelieving, but believe."
Maryanne Rusinak
Ascension parishioner
Librarian at Concordia University Chicago
Note:
The international Thomas Merton Society will host its 12th conference, With Roots in Eternity: Merton, the Desert and the City at Loyola University's Lakeshore Campus in Chicago June 9-12. Follow this link for program and information.
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