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After Easter, the followers of Jesus gathered together
and zealously continued the mission he began (Acts
2:42-47). The Risen Lord called all who live in Him and
are made whole and holy by Him to the worldwide mission
of peace and mercy in the Holy Spirit (John 20:19-31).
Christian communal life
The
Second Sunday of the Easter season always gives us a
summary account of the daily life of the early Christian
community; in effect, how they actualized the reality of
the Resurrection of Jesus in their lives. This glimpse
into their communal life is admittedly an idyllic and
schematized picture, but it lets us into the principles
upon which the initial community of believers was
founded and developed.
The
chief characteristics of the early community were
adherence to the teachings of the apostles and the
centering of their religiosity on the Eucharist (“the
breaking of the bread”) in their homes. Evidently, the
early Christians did not consider themselves separate
from the Jewish community. Regularly participating in
the temple prayer, they would nonetheless exclusively
celebrate the Lord’s Supper in their homes as their
memorial of Jesus’ death.
The
nascent Church in its earliest stage of development
relied on the personal witnessing by the disciples who
had known the earthly Jesus. Their preaching, typified
by Peter’s discourse on Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36),
challenged people to believe in Jesus, and their
on-going catechesis of those already initiated
guaranteed growth in the faith. By the time Luke wrote
the Acts of the Apostles, the authoritative eyewitnesses
to Jesus were virtually gone. So his contemporaries of
the second and third generations of Christians had to be
taught how to survive and flourish as a vibrant
community of faith with the help of his Gospel and its
sequel on the works and words of Jesus’ disciples.
Alive in
the Holy Spirit
The
communal sharing among the Christians was not only in
the “breaking of the bread” in their meals, but
socially, as well, in their holding of possessions in
common. Their system of distribution of goods meant that
wealthier Christians sold their possessions when the
needs of their poor members required it. But it was
voluntary and many did retain their possessions.
It was
the power of God at work with them that enabled the
Christian community to work wonders and signs, primarily
cures (Acts 3:1-10), that awed bystanders and led them
to realize the dawning of the eschatological age of
fulfillment. It was also the extraordinary power of God
that brought others into their community and made their
numbers grow. The Holy Spirit is the major factor of
continuity between Jesus and the Church. As the Spirit
empowered Jesus to live and die for others, the same
Spirit enabled the Christians to believe and share all
things and break bread together and praise God and grow
day by day.
A
diptych of appearances
Every
year on the Second Sunday of Easter, we have the Gospel
account of Jesus’ two resurrection appearances which
hinge on the person of Thomas, absent in one and central
in the other. Both appearances occurred on the first day
of the week, i.e. after the Sabbath, the actual day of
the Resurrection, “the day of the Lord” in which the
Christians would eventually find an expression of their
distinction from the Jews. It was while focusing on the
beginning of the week, looking, therefore, on the
future, that the Holy Spirit was bestowed on the
disciples, commissioning them to go forth and declare
salvation to people in continuation of Jesus’ own
mission. Breathing on them, the Risen Jesus evoked His
creative and recreative role on the restoration of God’s
people.
Unimpeded by material obstacles, the Risen Lord was each
time mysteriously in the midst of his followers. And it
was shalom (peace) that He brought them, the
eschatological blessings of wholeness, harmony,
prosperity and all good things. Thomas, the
representative of those called to believe on the
testimony of others, a faith more difficult than what
was required of those who have personally encountered
Jesus, actually attested to a faith that outstrips the
others with his, “My Lord and my God,” declaring the
Risen Jesus as God, even as Jesus invited him to see and
touch the nail marks in His hands and the one at His
side.
Alálaong
bagá,
Thomas’s ultimate profound faith was provoked by the
reality of Jesus’ wounds. Today, Jesus reveals His body
wounds to us in the community of the faithful where we
belong and in the world around us. In the victims of
violence or war, in those terminally sick, in those
abused and exploited, in those abandoned and oppressed.
And the tangible proofs of His Resurrection can be seen
in the way our Christian community reaches out to others
in need of care and love: by our sharing with others and
living in peace, by our involvement in the works of
justice and charity, by our dedication to reconciliation
in families and among races and religions, by our
devotion to issues of life and health and well-being for
all.
For more of my reflections and works, visit my blogsite:
http://alalaongbaga.multiply.com. |
