Quick Summary:

Our gospel story today is a familiar one to us. We hear it every year on the first Sunday after Easter. After the joy and celebration of Christ’s resurrection, it serves as a kind of REALITY CHECK. It records Jesus’ first appearance to the apostles after his resurrection, and we get the feeling that his resurrection won’t bring any instant changes into the lives of his disciple community. The doors where they gathered are locked and the windows bolted shut, out of fear. Into the midst of that fear, Jesus comes and stands among them. PEACE BE WITH YOU, he says. And then he shows them his hands and his side.

Notice: there are no words of judgment—not a one. He doesn’t try to talk them out of their fear nor does he say anything to suggest they ought to “suck it up,” swallow their fear, and pull themselves together. Instead, he brings them peace and shows them his wounds.

“Our human condition,” writes Jose´ Luis Descalzo, “is to be maimed." If this is true, when Christ shows us his wounds, it’s as if he is saying to us: YOUR INJURIES—WHATEVER THEIR ORIGIN AND WHEREVER THEY RESIDE IN YOU; YOUR FEARS, YOUR MAIMINGS, HAVE BEEN TRANSFORMED NOW, BY THESE WOUNDS.