Jesus, Thomas and Us: Touching, Seeing, Believing and Proclaiming.

John 20:24-31

Did Thomas put his finger(s) into the wounds of Jesus or not? I sometimes ask this question of people who would think they know this text well. Most people say ‘Yes!’ Certainly a lot of Christian art over the centuries supports this view, as well as many meditations upon the text. The line generally taken is that Thomas doubted so much that while the other apostles believed upon seeing the Lord, he required to touch before he believed. Hence he tends to be called ‘Doubting Thomas’.

But close examination of the text opens up other interpretations and emphases. Jesus appeared, and clearly knew what Thomas had said. That might have made a strong impression on Thomas by itself. Although Thomas was invited to touch Jesus, no record is made of him actually doing so. The narrative moves directly to Thomas’s confession of faith in which, combining the Greek equivalents of two Hebrew names for God (YHWH and Elohim), he gave a very succinct but very strong act of faith in the divinity of Jesus. This Gospel has not yet had the other apostles articulate their faith in the Risen Lord so directly or so boldly or fully. We are told only that they are filled with joy and accept they have seen the Lord. Therefore this Gospel narrative makes Thomas a privileged articulator of full and authentic faith in Jesus. Further, Jesus says he believed because of what he saw, not because he touched. This put him in the same position as the other apostles, and also in the same position as Mary Magdalene who believed though she was specifically told not to touch Jesus (20:17).

All these resurrection appearances address the issue of the relationship between the desire for evidence, the willingness to accept the carrier of it, and the call to belief. The former two lead us further into the material world searching for more data, and data that is more tangible, visible and rational. But the latter calls us to see the presence and action of God pervading this data, within it but beyond it, calling us to believe that in Jesus we meet God and through Jesus we receive eternal divine life. Evidence is important and Jesus supplies it. All the incidents in this chapter of John call people not to despise evidence but importantly to be wary of desiring too much evidence. Rather, they encourage people to be open to the belief to which the existing evidence already points. But belief involves other factors, including moral factors and our will, and is not merely the conclusion of an evidentially based argument.

The Resurrection enables us to know Jesus (who is now typically not accessible to our external senses) through the power of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts and in this way we know him as divine, something which mere material evidence alone cannot adequately prove. Through these episodes in John 20, first Jesus, and then the evangelist in his turn, point people towards these divine realities, these supernatural ways of knowing and so of living, even on earth. The material signs point towards this but one must then go beyond them.

Jesus knew only a few people would see him in his resurrected flesh. Jesus established the apostles as witnesses to his life, its teaching and his resurrection. He expected others to come to believe because of their teaching – see Jn17:20. This appearance to Thomas fully established him as an apostle, a calling he may have feared he had lost by his absence from the earlier appearance. But the final words of Jesus to Thomas (v 29) suggest an implied but gentle rebuke of Thomas who had been unwilling to believe the testimony of the other apostles. This may have helped him pastorally as a future preacher of the Gospel.

These final words of Jesus to Thomas also draw attention to those who are called to believe through the testimony and teaching of the apostles and will not have the opportunity for actually seeing Jesus. They do have evidence, just different evidence. Jesus’ words to Thomas indicated that by grace, by the Holy Spirit, it is enough evidence to bring belief and make them blessed.

It seems to me that at least some in the audiences to whom the apostles, including Thomas and John, preached sometimes raised the same objection. They wanted more evidence, more stories about Jesus, if they were to believe. The evangelist feared people would raise this objection of the gospel he has just written. Will what he has written down, by God’s grace, be enough to elicit faith? Does it say enough? The evangelist addresses this concern in his next two verses. He says that Jesus did many other signs but he has put a selection in writing that people may believe and so have eternal life. He says this is enough evidence. As Thomas had to be corrected for not accepting the word of the other apostles but then also came to believe without additional information or experience, so let his story stand as an example that the hearers and readers of John’s Gospel are being offered enough evidence to lead them to believe.

And what of us, and our generation? Can we legitimately ask for more evidence than we have been given? Taking problems of unbelief seriously and sensitively is important but there is more to coming to faith than mere accumulation of hard evidence. We may have to delve more deeply into the evidence we have been given, but we are also called to believe, to trust, to commit to the God who is behind, in, and beyond the evidence. Detailed attention to material evidence is not everything.

If we identify with doubting Thomas we are also to identify with believing Thomas and with preaching Thomas. Let us read the gospel, let us hear the gospel (see Romans 10:17) and God who speaks through it. |Let us ask God to grace us with belief, and so confess Jesus as our Lord and God, and so enter into eternal life. Let us also believe we have enough evidence in the Gospels to proclaim it to others in order to invite them to faith. In this way, like Thomas, let us become effective heralds of the Gospel.

Resurrection Appearances - The Disciples in the Upper Room - John 20:19-23

In our Gospel passage from John we are presented with a scene of fearful tension. The disciples are gathered together in a room, the doors are bolted shut; they have turned in on themselves. They are frightened and perplexed at the death of Jesus, the disappearance of His body and the extraordinary witness of Mary Magdalene to His resurrection. They are in ‘fear of the Jews’ and at a loss to explain all that has happened and what they will do as a result. This sense of fear and alienation is then shattered, as only Christ can shatter the longing and fear in our hearts.

Jesus appears in their midst and without any preamble gives them what they most earnestly desire; He says, “Peace be with you.” Such a simple greeting, and yet within His peace, within Him, is to be found the souls greatest and fullest consummation. He shows them His hands and side, reassures them that He has indeed risen and then says to them again; “Peace be with you.”His peace given, Jesus can now begin to empower the disciples, and give them the sense of purpose and direction that they have lost. A soul which is not at peace is ill-disposed to spread the joy and peace of Christ. 

Having given His peace, Jesus can now reveal to the disciples their purpose. This purpose is Christ’s purpose also: they will be His representatives on earth; “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” The disciples are charged with the task of spreading the Gospel of Christ, to Jew and Gentile alike. Their place is not behind the locked and bolted doors of a house in Jerusalem, but in the world and among its peoples. Their place is not to hide in fear, but to go in peace and spread the Word. Having given them His peace, and His purpose, He now gives them the power which they will need to carry out His divine will.

It is by the gift of the Holy Spirit that the disciples will be given the power to do God’s will. Without the Spirit to strengthen and guide them they would flounder in a hostile world; “he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” The Spirit is a gift, something to be received. The Holy Spirit cannot be taken, only received; the gift must be accepted or else rejected. In receiving this gift the disciples can; “go and make disciples of all the nations.”(Matthew 28:19) They have His peace, His purpose, and His power, in the measure they need to fulfil his commands.

If they are in any doubt as to this power, or indeed one of the central purposes of their mission, Jesus makes the mandate clear. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” Just as His peace is given now to us, just as our mission to spread His Word exists now as it did for the disciples then, so the power of the Holy Spirit rests with us in the Church today. We all have different roles and functions within the Body of Christ, as both Scripture and Tradition make clear, but that we all have our part to play is certain. Just as Jesus lead the fearful and perplexed disciples into His peace, gave them a divine purpose here on earth, and granted them the power by which they could accomplish His will; so too does He grant us this life-giving privilege today. We can bolt the doors to our rooms and our hearts, or we can receive His gifts and spread the Truth of Him that stands among us.

Resurrection Appearances – Road to Emmaus

Luke 24: 13-35

St Luke deals with the post-Resurrection appearances of Christ in chapter 24 of his Gospel. The longest section  in this chapter is given over to a journey made by two of Jesus’ disciples along the Road to Emmaus. On the way, although they do not immediately realize it, the two disciples encounter the Risen Christ. Interestingly, what follows from this meeting as Luke describes it reads very much like a commentary on the Mass. 

Jesus begins with a kind of liturgy of the word. We read that beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27). Using the scriptures of ancient Israel, Jesus explains the significance of his life, death, and resurrection: he teaches these two disciples that the promises God made

to Israel through the prophets have been fulfilled in him. Later in the story the two disciples will remember how their hearts burned within them as the scriptures were opened to them: faith and love are ignited by preachers of truth.

Yet strangely, despite being offered an interpretation of scripture by the author of scripture himself, the disciples still did not recognize Jesus. They have not yet grasped what resurrection means, that the risen Christ will go on dwelling in the midst of his Church. Indeed, their eyes are only opened at the breaking of bread. As evening draws near, Jesus makes as if to carry on walking, but the two disciples invite him to stay. At table Jesus blesses the bread, breaks it, and gives it to them. Only then do they recognize who this mysterious stranger is: and at this moment Jesus vanishes. 

This meal on the road to Emmaus serves as a bridge between the meals that the earthly Jesus shared with his friends during his life on earth, and the Eucharist of the early Church described in Acts. Luke is pointing us to that moment when the Church understood that when we offer bread and wine in Christ’s memory, as Jesus himself commanded, then by the power of the Spirit Christ will become really present to us under the sacramental sign. 

It is important to note how the two disciples responded to this encounter with Christ at the breaking of bread. We read: ‘and they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem’. We often refer to the Eucharist as ‘the Mass’, which derives from the dismissal in Latin: ‘ite Missa est’ or ‘Go forth, the Mass is ended’. We gather around the altar with Christ to be nourished, to be fed. Then we are sent out to draw others to this banquet.

Resurrection Appearances - St Mark's Gospel

As we continue our series of reflections of the resurrection appearances of Our Lord Jesus Christ to the disciples, this post is probably going to be a bit of an odd one out: the original conclusion to the Gospel according to St Mark contained no references to appearances of the risen Christ, dramatically concluding with the incomplete and unresolved tension of the empty tomb (16:8). Within a few years of its first completion, for reasons about which we can only speculate, somebody added verses 9-20, depicting in laconic prose the numerous appearances of Christ and His ascension to the right hand of the Father.

It would be wrong, however, to say that this earliest ending of the earliest canonical gospel contains no reference to the resurrection. Not only does the short ending contain a reference to the empty tomb, but the entire gospel presupposes the resurrection: it is the person of the risen Christ around which this earliest Christian community, to whom the Gospel is addressed, are gathered. By finishing on the tantalising note of the empty tomb, seeming to leave off a story as abruptly as the Gospel first picked it up, the original audience (for it seems possible that this was a gospel written for performance, rather than for written distribution) are left with the question ‘...and then what?!’

To answer that question takes much more than words: the answer is found within the life of the community, and particularly with the apostles around whom it was formed (in which St Peter, of whom St Mark was a disciple, occupies pride of place). It was they to whom Christ appeared, they who could recount the stories of their first-hand knowledge of Jesus, and their lives that were eloquent testimony to his rising power; this was a Church in which the Acts of the Apostles was still being written!

As time elapsed and the first hand witnesses to Christ’s resurrection became fewer, the community distilled the bare bones of their anecdotes into the longer conclusion that is now customarily attached to the original. But this is little more than an outline, and certainly no replacement for the living tradition of the Church in which we, who witness Christ - and witness to Him - in today’s world, are heirs. Although we have a completed text of the Acts of the Apostles, there is a sense in which the full history of the acts of Jesus’ apostolic community is still being written in the history of His Church, and will not be completed until we too return with Christ to be with the Father, and join the angelic hosts in the singing of Holy! Holy! Holy!

Resurrection Appearances – Mary Magdalene

Readings: Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:9-11; John 20:11-18

The Christian faith is not predicated on an empty tomb. That alone would be insufficient to rule out the various conspiracy theories which began to circulate immediately (e.g. Mt. 28:11-15). The natural response to the empty tomb was puzzlement, perturbation, and even tears. There seems to be only one exception: 'the disciple whom Jesus loved', upon entering the empty tomb, 'saw and believed' (Jn. 20:8). Indeed, blessed are those who have not seen Jesus and yet have believed! (cf. Jn. 20:29) But if this disciple believed so readily, it is not because he was quicker at reading the signs or understanding the Scriptures; it can only be that his intimate love for Jesus enabled him to see the truth at a deeper and more personal level.

So the empty tomb – an external shell – is no guarantee of the Resurrection. No, it is only a personal encounter with the Risen Christ, recognised in love, that convinces us of the news that seems too good to be true: that Christ has conquered death.  Thus it is appropriate, as we begin our series on the Resurrection appearances, to look first at Mary Magdalene, the first person to behold the Risen Lord, to touch him, and to tell the other disciples the good news (hence her traditional appellation as the Apostle of the Apostles).

As usual, the Gospels select and highlight different details of the historical events, whether it is the names of other women accompanying her to the tomb (Mary, the mother of James; Joanna; Salome), or various supernatural occurrences. But it is John's account that is particularly rich regarding Mary Magdalene. Three times she bewails the absence of Jesus' body: 'they have taken my Lord away'. After alerting the disciples to the empty tomb, she stands outside, weeping.

Into her distress, loneliness and fearfulness, the Risen Jesus gently comes to bring light. It is dawn on Sunday, the first day of the New Creation. She confuses him for the 'gardener', which recalls God walking in Eden; and he is probably naked, like a second Adam (cf. 1 Cor.15:22, 45). This non-recognition of the Risen Jesus by his disciples is a recurring theme: there is something about his risen body that is different. It is foolish to speculate on what exactly he looks like (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35-6); but we know he has a transfigured, glorious, imperishable body (1 Cor. 15:42-4).

Simply by calling her name, 'Mary', Jesus now communicates his loving presence. No wonder Mary embraces him (or just his feet: Mt 28:9), no doubt still weeping as she struggles to contain her joy. But this is not a moment to savour: it is just the beginning. 'Don't be clinging onto me', Jesus (literally) tells her. Although diverse interpretations have been given of this, the most convincing is that John the Evangelist is keen to emphasise that every Christian has equal access to the Risen Christ. Jesus and the Father make their home in every Christian (Jn 14:22-3). If Mary (and the other disciples) were physically close to Jesus, this was no special privilege, no more direct access, than what we today enjoy. We can all see Jesus, touch Jesus, taste Jesus – above all in the Eucharist (cf. 1 Jn. 1:1; Jn. 6:56-7). John seems to present the death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus as a single great event, completing his elevation to the Father (cf. Jn. 12:32-3). So Jesus points Mary ahead to the Ascension (Jn. 20:17), because only when he is glorified will he send the Holy Spirit (Jn. 7:39; 16:7).

The final element of this encounter is the most resonant for Dominican spirituality. Instead of clinging alone to the Risen Jesus, we (like Mary) are told: Go and tell my brothers! (Jn. 20:17) The news of the Resurrection is so good, so necessary for others to hear, that we cannot possibly keep it to ourselves. The Dominican image of the water pipe – which freely dispenses goodness, rather than storing it like a bowl – is highly relevant here. As St Dominic himself told the brethren, 'hoarded grain goes bad'. How wonderful and appropriate, then, that Mary Magdalene – the first to encounter the Risen Lord – is a patroness of the Order of Preachers.

Resurrection Appearances - Introduction

Godzdogz has been rather quiet over the last couple of weeks: the time after Easter and before the new university term is an occasion for the friars to visit their families, and also gives an opportunity to visit and get to know the other Dominican communities around the Province. Several of the students have been staying at the London priory, getting to know the parish in anticipation of a parish mission which will be taking place in September, and which they will help prepare over the summer.

Now, though, with lectures less than a week away, the community in Oxford is back up to strength, and we turn our attention here on Godzdogz to the season we are celebrating at the moment. For the rest of Eastertide, we will be exploring the Scriptural accounts of the various appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection, seeing how they relate and what we can learn from them about Jesus himself, about the meaning of his Resurrection. In particular, we find in these passages of the Bible words of Jesus preparing his followers for the situation they would find themselves in after his Ascension, the situation in which the Church – recognising her continuity with the Apostles – understands herself to be in to this day.

A new prayer for Dominican vocations

A new prayer card for Dominican vocations has been created at Blackfriars, Oxford and is right now being distributed to our communities around the country. 

The front image shows the statue of St Dominic, by Eric Gill, located in our priory church. It reflects the fact that St Dominic is called the ‘Light of the Church’ (Lumen Ecclesiae), though of course he points to and proclaims Christ who is the Light of the World (Jn 8:12, 9:5) and its saving truth.

The new prayer was composed to express some key features of the Dominican charism and calling, and to be appropriate for all the different types of vocation found within the Dominican family. 

We invite you to join us in using the prayer, or to pray in other ways, to ask God to bless us with vocations, and deepen existing vocations, that the Order may in turn bless the Church and the world through our Dominican lives.

You are welcome to download and print copies of the prayer and the image of St Dominic.

The New York Times notices Dominican growth

A few days ago, the front page of the International Herald Tribune (owned by the New York Times) carried an article about the recent growth in Dominican vocations.

The spectacular increase in young vocations in Ireland and the northeastern USA (Province of St Joseph), seen as an 'improbable revival', is largely explained in the article by the return to the 'fundamentals' of the Dominican tradition.

The journalist naturally focuses on the most visual aspect – our Dominican habit – since that has an immediate purchase on the imagination of wider society. But this should not eclipse the concrete aspects of our traditional religious life, of which the habit is but the outward sign and symbol. That's why the article rightly refers to 'the spiritual benefits of shared prayer and a communal lifestyle'; as well as the Dominican presence on the blogosphere! 

Though we Dominicans are all very different as individuals, we obviously have a lot in common, too. We might express it in different ways, but we all share an attraction to the Dominican Order and its mission to give authentic witness to Jesus Christ. Our religious life is built upon four traditional pillars – namely, prayer, study, community and mission – as expressed in our vocations video of 2011.

Our English Province has also seen considerable numbers of men entering in recent years, representing steady growth and a lowering of the average age. Roughly one eighth of the brethren are in initial formation, including four novices.

We pray that God will continue to call men and women to share in the Dominican way of life, to join our mission to bring the Gospel to those who need to hear it, and those who need to hear it again...

'White Smoke'

In the spirit of Easter joy, we hope this video might lift your hearts. The Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, were fortunate to have cameras running while they recorded their upcoming album with De Montfort Music, as this coincided with the election of Pope Francis. The video below can bring us to relive the excitement of that moment.

On 13 March 2013, right after Vespers, most of the Oxford brethren were huddled round a little laptop in the JCR (student common room of Blackfriars Hall), straining to hear the quiet commentary. Rather uncharacteristically, we were even willing to delay our dinner! By the time Pope Francis appeared on the balcony of St Peter's, we had transferred to the Aula (lecture room) with its big screen, to watch, listen and pray with him and millions around the world.

Where were you...?