My friends, it was Easter Friday during the 1^st week of Easter, as I wrote this. Additionally, I received an on-line Easter greeting from a friend who almost always sends me one after the actual holiday or holyday.  As I reflect on that, I realize, and she probably did too, that the wonderful sentiments that Easter conveys, or any other special day for that matter, are big enough, and important enough to extend to more than one day. My mother-by-marriage, Margaret, used to say, “We can celebrate our birthdays for a whole week,” when we didn’t get together on someone’s actual special day. 

   So, what am I saying with regard to the Easter Season?  Benedictine Sister, Joan Chittister has said of Easter, “It is not a nice, fairytale with a happy ending—it is just the beginning.”

   I think to put all of this in perspective, let’s review what happened in Jesus’ life journey after he died on the cross—the state punishment for one who wouldn’t remain silent in the face of injustice to many in Church and State. 

   Jesus’ followers from over the three years of his very public life had, we could say, lost a great deal of hope in their rabbi who they sincerely thought to be their “messiah,” and even though Jesus foretold his death, they couldn’t actually believe that it would come to pass.

   They had seen him cure many, raise Lazarus from the dead— “why,” in their humanity, they asked, “couldn’t he save himself?” They had never before seen the likes of such a teacher-revealer-friend, so it makes sense that they simply couldn’t imagine such a one as Jesus, who would become, the Christ, the “anointed one.”

   So after the Sabbath, these 1^st followers’ level of hope got a real boost when the women went to his tomb to anoint his body, and found that had, “gone missing.”  Now, not yet understanding what Jesus’ foretelling of the fact that, “he would rise again” truly meant, they assumed, some of them, that his body had been stolen. 

   You may have wondered reading the account from John’s gospel on Easter, of Peter and John going to inspect the tomb after Mary Magdala reported that Jesus was not there, why it mattered “that the body wrappings and the face covering were in different places” in the tomb.  What John, in his gospel is saying to his readers, is what he personally, “saw,” [and came] “to believe” –Jesus had risen, just as he said, because if someone had actually, “stolen his body,” they wouldn’t have unwrapped it first!  John wants everyone reading his account to know what he came to know—Jesus had truly risen! 

   And additionally, we all, reading through the longer account of that 1^st Easter morning, come to know and hopefully believe that “rising from the dead” is quite different than being “resuscitated,” as was Lazarus.  Easter morning let those 1^st believers know that what Jesus experienced in the resurrection –something promised to each of us one day, was, and would be different.

   We know this because the risen Jesus was unrecognizable to his closest friends and followers—Mary Magdala and the travelers on the way to Emmaus, who only knew him when he “spoke and acted” in ways that they recognized from when he had been physically present to them.

   At this point friends, I think it is important to actually try and place ourselves into this awesome experience that Jesus’ 1^st followers, Scripture tells us, were involved in.  In doing that, we can excuse perhaps, any unbelief, or lack of seeming, understanding of what was going on, because after all, what we have come to believe, in our faith, after hearing this story every year of our lives, these 1^st followers were experiencing for the very first time!

    Today then, in John’s gospel, we really shouldn’t be so hard on Thomas for not believing—he was perhaps a very “pragmatic” person who simply, “needed to physically see,” to believe.  Mary Magdala and those who journeyed to Emmaus, along with all the other apostles had experienced the “risen Jesus” in a way that they couldn’t explain, which helped them to believe.  The telling then, over the centuries, of this awesome story has helped all of us to believe. 

   Pondering then the other Scripture selections for this 2^nd Sunday of Easter, we see that as Joan Chittister said of Easter, “this is just the beginning.”  Our part then, as for all of Jesus’ followers is to walk in his footsteps, doing in our world, what he did in his. 

   In the reading from Acts, we are told that, “the community of believers was of one “mind and heart,” thus from the very beginning, we should know that for each of us, both, “mind and heart” will be needed “to be” in our world as Jesus was in his.  Luke, thought-to-be writer of Acts continues, “all [in this community of believers] were given great respect,” and that “no one was needy among them.” Think my friends, how it would be if more in our world, treated “all with respect” and that we shared to the point that “no one was needy.”

   In the second reading from John’s 1^st letter, he says, “the love of God consists of this, that we keep God’s commandments,” and here we see that balance, or at least mention of the importance of “mind and heart” –is not always an easy undertaking.  It has been said, “Love is the hardest lesson.”  Additionally, John, in his 1^st letter has a consul for those who would perhaps enforce the “commandments”— [that they] “are not burdensome.”

   In today’s gospel, another line that jumps out for me, that Jesus utters often when he appears after the resurrection, is one that we should make part of our own lives, as we too engage with others— “Peace be with you!” It would seem that this phrase, whether we use these exact words or not, would be the balance between acting on law, versus acting with love. 

   Within this gospel, our brother Jesus gives the Church its “marching orders” so to speak, in being open to the, “Spirit continually renewing the face of the earth: “Whose sins you retain, or forgive,” it is done!”  I believe what Jesus is basically saying here is that we should engage not only our minds, but more so, and at least with equal measure, our hearts— “do what you feel, in your heart, is right,” I believe Jesus is saying.  Again, not to be redundant, Bishop Barron’s response to our parish’s request for a visit, is devoid of heart.

   This past week our Church lost a prophet in the person of Bishop Tom Gumbleton. He said of himself that in his justice actions in our world for peace, for equality, and more, “he never thought about consequences,” and that is probably why he never attained more than “auxiliary” bishop, which came to him at age 38. Our Church, unfortunately, doesn’t promote prophets. 

   In conclusion then, earlier I mentioned the words from John’s 1^st letter that “love of God consists of…keeping God’s commandments,” and Jesus made that easy for us when he said, there are really only two you need keep— “Love God and your neighbor as yourself.”  It sounds simple, but anyone, including the first community of believers that formed after the resurrection came to know, it is not always “simple,” nor is it, “easy.”  Our salvation friends is in knowing that our brother Jesus has not only shown us “the way,” but stands with us as we strive to engage heart and mind in living as he did.  Amen? —Amen! —Alleluia!