'My Lord and my God!' Sunday Reflections, 2nd Sunday of Easter Year A

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Jusepe Martínez, c.1630, Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest [Web Gallery of Art]

Second Sunday of Easter (or of Divine Mercy) Year A

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)                                  
Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)
Gospel John 20:19-31 (New Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition, Canada) 
  
When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
continue gospel reading>
We can read the words of Jesus to Thomas as a gentle rebuke that has led to the nickname he may carry for all eternity: 'Doubting Thomas'. But I prefer to see him as the one who understood that the Risen Lord must carry the scars of his crucifixion and who made the most explicit act of faith in the whole of Sacred Scripture: My Lord and my God!
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