Please read this passage before reading the homily.
My sisters and brothers,
This is the first day of the week again, the day Chrost rose from the dead. We still have the doors locked and we are afraid of shadows. We lack peace, but we eagerly desire peace.
In John’s arrangement, the Holy Spirit is given to us b Jesus on the day of his resurrection. Luke arranges the giving of the Holy Church on Pentecost, fifty days later. Both are correct because it takes at least fifty days to comprehend the gift given us in the rising of Jesus from the dead. It takes fifty days to celebrate it.
Thomas had a twin. Thomas was absent from the gathering on the day of Easter. So were we. We are like his twin. We have come to believe later. Thomas is an example of all who come to know Jesus after the first believers.
The Jesus Christ Library has but one volume in it; our presidential libraries have thousands of documents in them. The Jesus Library has only one volume, but that book contains everything that Jesus has said and done on earth and that he continues to do through us who believe.
The women believed. The disciples believed. Thomas eventually believed. The Church believed and still believes that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
The women and the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. The Lord is present to us, in our gathering here in this assembly to celebrate his resurrection, in the proclamation of the Scriptures, in action of the priest presiding over this celebration, as well as under the forms of bread and wine. The Lord is present today to us, despite any and all closely locked doors we try to put up.
Rejoice that you are here. Rejoice that the Scriptures have been proclaimed to you. Rejoice that a priest presides. Rejoice that the Lord himself comes to us in the forms of bread and wine to grow us in holiness.
All these presences are real, full and entire. All these presents are real, and we need them in order to experience the risen Lord in our midst today.