“The Apostolic Word IS Christ”
Saint John 20: 19-31
Quasimodogeniti: 8 April Anno Domini 2018
Father Jay Watson SSP
The Word works. You get what you get. It is what it is.
The upper room meeting on Easter evening is the Sunday morning meeting at Augsburg, Shawnee. And, if it isn’t… then there’s absolutely no need to be here. Now, to be sure, the visual and touchable mode of Christ’s presence is different. But Christ is still present here and it’s not just a spiritual presence. It is an actual bodily presence—an Incarnated God/Man “for you.”
There are profundities here, as there are in our text, yes. But ultimately it isn’t about the rhetorical wisdom of the world. There are poignancies here, as there are in today’s Gospel. But at the core it isn’t about sentimentalities or emotions. And there is a great Mystery, a Sacrament, here today, as the “12” also experienced. But even the Easter event is no longer about miraculous signs and wonders but about Christ’s presence where, when, and how, He chooses to be “for you.”
Jesus appeared to the “12” to be with them, to teach them, to open their “eyes” (i.e. hearts and minds) to the reality of the Resurrection, to love them, to forgive them, and to be received by them. Yes, so it is. The Word of The Lord.
Saint Thomas was not there. The reasons matter not. The church submits that He should have been there. The Church is correct. The church that evening was the other 11, and whoever else was present in the room. The Church today is still the One, Holy, Catholic assembly—at large—and here in this parish. Those who are not here should be here: period!
Jesus establishes The (capital “T”) Office of The Holy Ministry in that upper room. Yes, it’s the public ministry but the word Holy should really be used. Holy, separate, designated, chosen out for a particular purpose, is what marks the Disciples and their successors. Jesus is Holy and so are all of them because He breathes on them; He ordains them, He lays hands on them as they lay hands on Him, by touching His Holy wounds—the visual and physical proof-texts of the satisfying Atonement and the Justifying Resurrection. It’s now all about those men who went from being followers to being empowered Ambassadors: Apostles. Sent Ones.
Today most assuredly is not about “beating up” on Saint Thomas. He was a great, heroic, loyal, and faithful Bishop and Martyr. Thank You God for blessed + Saint Thomas. But, Thomas came back. He was only gone one Mass.
The point is how he reacted during the intervening octave, and more importantly, how the other Apostles acted.
The other “11” did what they were ordained to do—they preached The Word of Christ to the skeptic, to the unbeliever, non-believer, nascent believer. That is all pastors can do. That is all any of you disciples can do. The missing disciple did not deny what he had seen and experienced during Passion Week; he did not deny that he was a sinner. But he still should have been in the Assembly, and He should have believed The Word of The Lord—as preached by The Lord through His eleven other pastors.
The Holy Spirit, God, Works. The Word Works. No matter how much bravado and human evidence Didymus may have seemed to demand, The Paraclete called him through Peter’s and the other’s preaching and had him there the following Sunday evening. Christ in their very midst. Christ for them.
Saint Thomas had his own sinful hand and fingers, tracing the hand and foot wounds of His God. Thomas had his hand probe the impression, scar, skin-flap, of His Lord’s side/heart piercing wound. Thomas, confronted by the visual and local Jesus, believed. Thomas was most blessed.
But The God/Man speaks to all today telling you and others, that you are all MORE blessed than Thomas because you have not seen, not like the “12,” and yet you have believed.
It is not about the Cross, the Crucifix, alone, but it is all about The Word of The Lord. The Preached Apostolic message of Christ’s Person and Work, His suffering and dying for your sins and His glorious Resurrection for your Salvation…and His immediate, imminent Presence to bestow that forgiveness and peace. “Peace be unto you.”
There is no excuse to be absent from Christ and the gifts He desires to give other than unbelief. Pray for the conversion and repentance of all the lost sheep. If they are not here in the sheepfold when The Shepherd is, then they are lost.
It’s not about history. The fact that someone says they accept the Bible as true is not the point. It’s not about events at Golgotha, Jerusalem’s upper room, or Pentecost day. It’s not about seeing The Christ in the way that Thomas saw Him and touched Him. It’s about The Word that says “where two or three of you are gathered together in My Name, There I am in the midst of you.” This is The Holy Mass, the Divine Service, The Service of Word and Sacrament.
The visual revelation is absent, yes…but faith cometh by hearing and hearing by The Word of God.
You have life through His Name because His Name is no longer nailed to a tree but is now nailed to a font, pulpit and Holy Altar. His Precious Name, His precious Body and Blood, His saving Wounds and Work are in His cup and in His bread—Body and Blood—that you would “hear” Him speak to you as you “touch” Him in faith: “be not faithless but believing.”
The Word works. You get what you get. It is what it is.
It is all about The Word…the Word from the One, Holy, Catholic, and yes, APOSTOLIC Church: “WE/I have seen the Lord!” The Peace of The Lord be with you alway
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
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