Jesus' promise to us

Everything depends on the Resurrection, which is why there is no other Feast in the Church’s calendar which is celebrated with such solemnity. Each day of the Octave is treated as another Easter Day.

In the early Church, the Octave Day provided the new converts from the previous weekend with the occasion to join the community for the celebration of the Eucharist, still in their white baptismal robes. Hence, the old title ‘Sunday in White’ (Dominica in Albis). You can picture the kind of community they were joining when you hear it described in the Acts of the Apostles: how they shared everything in common and met in one another’s homes for the Breaking of Bread, the Eucharist.

Down through the centuries there have been many attempts to reignite the fervour and commitment of those early Christian communities. The different religious congregations of men and women, as well as some remarkable lay movements provide plentiful examples. It is fascinating to note how often they in turn needed renewing and calling back to the original vision of their founders and their ‘primitive’ rules.

As we reflect on the difficulties we face to live simply in our more complicated and ever-increasingly technological world, it might be consoling to realise that for all the first fervour of the early communities, the apostles themselves took time to adjust and understand what Christ was asking of them. At the Last Supper He had tried to prepare them for his own passion and death, as well as for the sufferings they would have to endure.

It is not unreasonable to conclude that when Thomas questioned the Lord about where he was going and how to get there, he was speaking for the rest of the apostles and, indeed, for all of us. As we see in this week’s gospel passage Thomas was not with the others when Christ appeared on Easter night and refused to accept their testimony. Hence, he is always labelled the ‘Doubting Thomas’ and the significance of what happened a week later when the Lord appeared again and invited him to see for himself the scars on his body.

If we were to return to the Last Supper and that moment when Thomas questioned Jesus, we would see he was not the only one with questions. Philip asked Jesus to show them his Father and “then they would be satisfied.” How often do we think to ourselves: why doesn’t the Lord make it clearer for us?

Faith is God’s gift and we need to be humble enough to receive it. When we do, then despite all the doubts and anxieties that beset us, we begin to see the power of Christ’s love shining through, recognising that it does overcome all the evil and death itself. We trust that he has gone to prepare a place for us and we begin to recognise those moments when he is quietly reminding us of his promise to be with us always.

Timothy J Buckley CSsR

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