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2nd Sunday Easter – peace be with you
April 7, 2015
Download Reflection Document 2nd Sunday Easter
Reflection Questions
- Easter lasts for 7 weeks in the Catholic experience. It is called Eastertide and marks the 50 days between Easter and Pentecost. What practice or ritual could you live for the next 50 days to celebrate Easter and let its message get ʻunder your skinʼ and change you?
- The followers of Christ became a “community”. A love in their hearts was expressed in love to others – especially those ʻin needʼ. What change happened in the lives of the disciples to enable them to share everything in ʻcommonʼ so that there was ʻno-one in needʼ? What change am I invited to make in my own life with regard to possessions? How could I show a deeper commitment to my parish community?
- The victory that conquers the world is our faith. Victory and conquer are both ʻbattleʼ laden words. There is a ʻfightʼ to be victorious over the ʻworldʼ. It is not by ʻwaterʼ (baptism) alone but also by
- ʻbloodʼ (sacrifice – martyrdom!). The real lived consequences of Easter challenge us: am I willing to fight the same fight Jesus endured to overcome injustice, discrimination? Only with this level of commitment will Easter Sunday Victory swallow up the evil of Friday.
- It is significant that immediately after Jesusʼ resurrection the disciples are afraid. Locked in a room. Sacred. They are followers of a ʻrebelʼ who has been crucified for seeking to over-turn the religious and political status-quo. Consider rebel fighters in Syria as a possible contemporary image. Yet the rebellion is one of bringing true peace and forgiveness. Can you experience the fear. Imagine the scene and pray with it.
- The final gift of Christ to his disciples as they huddled in a locked room in fear is peace and the guaranteed forgiveness of their sins through the gifting of the Holy Spirit in the Church. What is the source of your ʻun-peaceʼ and fear that Jesus wishes to heal?
- Thomas struggles to believe. He was not with the group as they saw Jesus for the first time. He wants to ʻsee with his own eyes and physically ʻtouchʼ Jesus. He asks for some ʻsignsʼ to help him. What do you need in your life to help you believe and grow stronger in your faith journey? Spend time in prayer asking Jesus.
- The famous South African civil rights proponent Allan Boesak once stated that Jesus, at the pearly gates, wonʼt question us about how well we carried out our religious obligations. Heʼll only ask us to show our wounds, the wounds that are the outward sign weʼve spent our lives imitating him. What if the only question Jesus asked on entry to heaven was: ʻshow me your woundsʼ?
- What is one action that you will do to be ʻlivingthewordʼ this week?