Carravagio: The Incredulity of Saint Thomas Patrick Comerford
Sunday next [11 April 2021] is the Second Sunday of Easter, often known as Low Sunday.
The Readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are:
The Readings: Acts 4: 32-35 or Isaiah 26: 2-9, 19; Psalm 133; I John 1: 1 to 2: 2; John 20: 19-31.
There is link to the readings HERE.
Introduction:
The Second Sunday of Easter has a number of names that introduce us to important Christian values, ideas and concepts.
In the Eastern Churches, the Sunday after Easter Day is known as Thomas Sunday because of the dramatic story about the Apostle Thomas in our Gospel reading this morning.
In many places, this Sunday is known as Low Sunday. Some say it was called ‘Low Sunday’ because the day’s liturgy is something of an anti-climax after the solemn Easter liturgy and celebrations a week earlier. Some even joke that the day is known as Low Sunday because it is the Sunday choirs take off after their hard work during Holy Week and Easter. In some places this Sunday is also known as Quasimodo Sunday.
This posting looks at the readings, and offers three alternative reflections on the Gospel reading, built around the theme of Sharing and Caring, the tradition that Sunday is also known as Quasimodo Sunday, and the way in which Saint Thomas the Apostle is known as ‘the Twin.’
Acts 4: 32-35:
This reading is the second of three summaries in the Acts of the Apostles describing how the members of the Apostolic Church in Jerusalem shared their possessions (verse 32). This reading links the search for a consensus in the beliefs in the community with holding possessions in common (see verses 34-35), with people of property contributing to the needs of the poor. This is not a tax, nor is it tithing, but is a voluntary activity in the Church that grows out of faith (see Acts 5: 4).
At this time, ‘there was not a needy person among them’ (verse 34), inspired, perhaps by the Biblical ideal, ‘There will, however, be no one in need among you’ (Deuteronomy 15: 4).
Sharing possessions is linked directly with the apostles’ powerful preaching of the Resurrection of Christ (4: 33).
Later in this section of the Acts of the Apostles (see Acts 4: 36 to 5: 11), we see examples of selling possessions and giving the proceeds to the Church. Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus also known as Barnabas, ‘sold a field that belonged to him then brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet’ (4: 37).
In contrast, Ananias and his wife Sapphira ‘sold a piece of property’ (Acts 5: 1) but ‘kept back some of the proceeds and brought only a part and laid it at the apostles’ feet’ (Acts 5: 2). They appear to have lied, claiming they were giving all the proceeds, but both died immediately (verses 5, 10).
Later, the poverty of the Church in Jerusalem was such that the Church in Antioch sent relief to ‘the believers living in Judea’ (see 11: 29).
If refusal to share and be honest in generosity is seen as destructive and death-bringing, then sharing and being boundless in generosity is seen as life-giving and a consequence of faith in the Resurrection.
Isaiah 26: 2-9, 19:
Many of the words and phrases in this reading are familiar to many in the Church of Ireland through the canticle Urbs Fortitudinis (Isaiah 26: 1-4, 7-8, Book of Common Prayer, pp 130).
The ‘Song of Victory’ (verses 1-6) is a processional psalm, sung on entering Jerusalem, ‘the strong city’ (verse 1), celebrating God’s victory over the enemies of Judah, ‘the righteous nation.’
The reading ends with words of hope for renewal, new life, and Resurrection (verse 19).
Psalm 133:
Psalm 133 is headed ‘A Song of Ascents.’ This is one of the shortest psalms in the Bible, being one of three psalms with three verses, the others being Psalm 131 and Psalm 134. The shortest psalm is Psalm 117, with two verses.
Psalm 133 is often known by its Latin title, Ecce Quam Bonum. It has many settings by composers from William Byrd to Leonard Bernstein, who uses verse 1 to conclude the text in Hebrew of the final movement of his Chichester Psalms, an extended work for choir and orchestra that begins with the complete text of Psalm 131.
The divisions being dealt with may be the divisions between the two kingdoms, Israel in the north and Judah in the south, with hope for their reunification.
We can imagine this psalm being sung by pilgrims as they came together on the journey up to Jerusalem or made their way up the steps of the Temple. It speaks of brotherly love among the people of God, exemplified in the brotherly love of Moses and Aaron.
The pilgrims came together from many tribes, with many tribal differences. But when they come together to worship God, verse 2 reminds them, it is like the anointing of the first high priest, Aaron, by his brother Moses. At that consecration, the high priest’s hair and clothes were saturated with oil (see Exodus 29: 7), signifying his total consecration to God and the abundance and generosity of God’s blessings.
Mount Hermon in the north was the highest mountain in the northern kingdom, Israel. It is blessed with copious rain, ‘the dew of Hermon’ (verse 3). If Jerusalem or Mount Zion, the sacred mountain in the southern kingdom, Judah, received the same abundance of rain, it would be a true blessing. God’s blessings are the inexhaustible source of life, and are for ever.
I John 1: 1 to 2: 2:
The psalm deals with divisions among the people. This letter, I John, is written to a community that is facing division and dissent in the community about whether Christ is the pre-existent, divine Son of God, the only revelation of the Father (see John 5: 18, 8: 23-30, 38, 52-59) and the physical reality of his incarnation. The author’s opponents deny the physical reality of Christ and, so, his death on the cross, holding that he only appeared to die.
The author of this letter remains unnamed. He is writing in the name of the teachers of a Church that emphasised the teachings of Saint John the Evangelist, who ‘declare[d] to you … concerning the word of life,’ Christ, who has existed ‘from the beginning,’ from the very start of God’s creative activities (see also Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1).
‘We,’ who preserve traditions from Christs’ earthly life, declare that he could be ‘touched … seen and heard (1: 1-3), he was both ‘with the Father’ and ‘revealed to us’ (1: 2), both divine and human. ‘We declare’ this (1: 3) so that ‘you’ may have ‘fellowship with us,’ be in communion with the whole Church as well as in communion with the Father and the Son. These relationships make Christian ‘joy … complete’ (1: 4). Further, ‘God is light’ (1: 5), the light of humanity, and there is darkness at all in him.
To claiming that one is in communion with Christ while walking in darkness, living by evil and unethical ways, is to lie (1: 6). But if we walk in the light and live by ethical and godly ways, we are in communion with Christ and with the Church (1: 7). When we claim we are perfect and ‘have no sin,’ we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us, and we stray from God’s ways (1: 8).
But God will forgive us when we admit our sinfulness. To say that we have not sinned is to ‘make him a liar’ (1: 10).
The author is writing this letter so that we may not sin (2: 1). He reminds us that Christ intercedse on our behalf with the Father as our ‘advocate.’ He has died not only for us but for ‘the whole world’ (2: 2).
John 20: 19-31:
‘Peace be with you.’
‘Peace be with you.’
‘Peace be with you.’
We find this phrase three times in the Gospel reading for next Sunday. It is a phrase spoken by the Risen Christ three times, with a Trinitarian resonance that reminds us of the three times God says to Moses, ‘I am …’, or the three visitors who receive hospitality from Abraham and who remind him of God’s commitment to fulfilling his plan for all creation.
This phrase ‘peace be with you’ is a saying in the post-Easter story in Saint John’s Gospel that identifies the Risen Christ, now living in the Glory of the Trinity, in the same that the phrase ‘Be not afraid’ is phrase that identifies the Risen Christ in the post-Resurrection narrative in Saint Matthew's Gospel.
In some churches, are we too glib about that phase, ‘Peace be with you,’ when it comes to exchanging the sign of peace? We can be a little glib, not just with our handshake, but with what we are actually wishing each other, in our hearts.
The peace that Christ wishes his disciples is not the usual sort of peace that we often wish one another on Sunday mornings: Sometimes, on Sunday mornings, it has become yet another saying robbed of its real significance, with no more heart-filled meaning than the supermarket till operator who says, ‘Have a nice day, missing you already.’
The peace Christ is bringing to his disciples on this morning is not a cheap way of saying ‘Good morning.’ It is a peace that the Disciples sorely need. It is a peace that a deeply divided church needs. The Disciples have been sorely divided by the dramatic and traumatic events of the previous week or so. They know they are a deeply divided body of believers.
One of them has betrayed Jesus, perhaps sold him for a pocket full of coins. Why, there are even rumours that he has now run off and killed himself, or that he is speculating in property with the money.
Another, a most trusted disciple indeed, has denied Jesus, openly, not once, but three times, in public.
He and another disciple went to the grave on Sunday morning, but weren't quite sure of the significance of the open, empty tomb. Indeed, it took a woman to wake them up to the reality of what was taking place.
And yet another disciple is refusing to believe any of this at all. Was he calling us liars? Was he ever a true believer? Was he thinking of quitting? After all, he had not turned up for a few of the last meetings.
It is to this deeply divided body of Disciples that Christ comes, breaking through all the barriers, physical barriers and barriers of faith, and says to them, not once but three times, ‘Peace be with you.’ It is not a mere greeting. It is a wish, a prayer and a blessing for those Disciples. And it is a wish, a prayer, a blessing that Christ still has for his Church today.
We are still divided, separated from each other, in the same way as those early Disciples were separated and divided. These divisions are not necessarily along the old traditional fault-lines that once marked the separation between the different branches of the church: rather, they cross those barriers so that conservative Catholics and conservative Presbyterians find it easier to make common cause with each other than with other Catholics or other Presbyterians who hold more liberal views.
We are like those Disciples: mutually suspicious, thinking others may not have realised the full significance of the message of the Risen Christ; finding it easier to know how others have denied Christ than to face up to our own denials; demanding of others a proof of faith that we would not demand of ourselves.
Those divisions that were hurting and breaking the early Church could be compared, in many ways to the ways, to the divisions hurting and breaking the Anglican Communion. If we kept our eyes on the Risen Christ, rather than trying to make the worst of other’s intentions, then we might allow ourselves to see that the same Risen Christ breaks through all barriers, physical, geographical, spiritual, the barriers of time and space, and the barriers that separate liberals and conservatives, Protestant and Catholic, the radical and the Orthodox. The Risen Christ breaks through all those barriers and wants to gather us together into one, healed and whole body.
In life, how often do we fail to make the vital connection between appearances and deceptions on the one hand, and, on the other hand, between seeing and believing?
Quiet often, I think, this comes down to our different styles of learning and approaches to integrating information. How do you learn?
Think of how you go about learning yourself. Can you remember the latest gadget you bought? When you get a new car, or a new laptop, do you first open the manual and read through the instructions carefully? Once you have read the handbook thoroughly and understand how all it works, you then get to work on your own.
Or perhaps you love buying flat-pack furniture, taking it home, and without ever looking at the instructions, figure out how to assemble it. Others, like me, get frustrated and end up with odd bits and pieces, but you see it as a challenge. Like a game of chess, you know that once all the pieces are placed correctly you are ready to move in and to win. The prize is that new coffee table or that new wardrobe.
And then there are those who prefer to have someone sit down beside them, show them how to do things, from switching on the new computer, to setting up passwords, folders and email accounts.
What sort of learners are Mary in the previous Sunday’s Resurrection story for Easter Day, Saint Thomas in this Gospel reading, and the other disciples in those readings?
For Mary, appearances could be deceiving. When she first saw the Risen Lord on Easter morning, she did not recognise him. She thought he was the gardener. But when he spoke to her she recognised his voice, and then wanted to hold on to him. From that moment of seeing and believing, she rushes off to tell the Disciples: ‘I have seen the Lord.’
Two of them, John the Beloved and Simon Peter, had already seen the empty tomb, but they failed to make the vital connection between seeing and believing. When they heard Mary’s testimony, they still failed to believe fully. They only believe when they see the Risen Lord standing among them, when he greets them, ‘Peace be with you,’ and when he shows them his pierced hands and side.
They had to see and to hear, they had to have the Master stand over them in their presence, before they could believe.
But Thomas the Twin, or Thomas Didymus, is missing from the group on that occasion. He has not seen and so he refuses to believe.
We can never be quite sure about Saint Thomas in this Gospel. After the death of Lazarus, he shows that he has no idea of the real meaning of death and resurrection when he suggests that the disciples should go to Bethany with Jesus: ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him’ (John 11: 16). And while Saint Thomas saw the raising of Lazarus, what did he believe in? Could seeing ever be enough for a doubting Thomas to believe?
At the Last Supper, despite assurances from Christ, Thomas protests that he does not know what is happening (John 14: 5). He has been with Christ for three years, and still he does not believe or understand. Seeing and explanations are not enough for him.
On the first Easter Day, the Disciples locked themselves away out of fear. But where is Thomas? Is he fearless? Or is he foolish?
For a full week, Thomas is absent and does not join in the Easter experience of the remaining disciples. When they tell him what has happened, Thomas refuses to accept their stories of the resurrection. For him hearing, even seeing, are not enough.
Thomas wants to see, hear and touch. He wants to use all his learning faculties before he can believe this story. See, hear and touch – if they had manuals then as we now have, I’m sure Thomas would have demanded a manual on the resurrection too.
His method of learning is to use all the different available approaches. He has heard, but he wants to see. When he sees, he wants to touch … he demands not only to touch the Risen Jesus, but to touch his wounds too before being convinced.
And so, for a second time within eight days, Christ came and stood among his disciples, and said: ‘Peace be with you.’
Do you recall how Mary was asked in the garden on Easter morning not to cling on to Christ? So why then is Thomas invited to touch him in the most intimate way? He is told to place his finger in Christ’s wounded hands and his hand in Christ’s pierced side.
Caravaggio has depicted this scene in his painting, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas. Yet we are never told whether Thomas actually touched those wounds. All we are told is that once he has seen the Risen Christ, Thomas simply professes his faith in Jesus: ‘My Lord and my God!’
In that moment, we hear the first expression of faith in the two natures of Christ, that he is both divine and human. For all his doubts, Thomas provides us with an exquisite summary of the apostolic faith.
Too often, perhaps, we talk about ‘Doubting Thomas.’ Instead, we might better call him ‘Believing Thomas.’ His doubting led him to question. But his questioning led to listening. And when he heard, he saw, perhaps he even touched. Whatever he did, he learned in his own way, and he came not only to faith but faith that for this first time was expressed in that eloquent yet succinct acknowledgment of Christ as both ‘My Lord and My God.’
Too often, in this world, we are deceived easily by the words of others and deceived by what they want us to see. Seeing is not always believing today. Hearing does not always mean we have heard the truth, as we know in Irish life and politics today. It is easy to deceive and to be deceived by a good presentation and by clever words.
Too often, we accept or judge people by their appearances, and we are easily deceived by the words of others because of their office or their privilege. But there are times when our faith, however simple or sophisticated, must lead us to ask appropriate questions, not to take everything for granted, and not to confuse what looks like being in our own interests with real beauty and truth.
If we are Disciples of the Risen Lord, then we cannot stay locked away in the Upper Room waiting for God to put everything right at the end of days. We must take courage from the Risen Christ, we must have an Easter faith that allows us to take to heart that message ‘Be not afraid,’ and go out with the message, ‘Peace be with you,’ a message that must be made real in the lives of our own section of the Church, throughout the wider Church, and that must have the power to transform the world we live in today.
This Sunday in Easter is traditionally called ‘Low Sunday.’ But we can be in high spirits because of the Risen Christ. ‘Peace be with you!’
Alternative Reading 1: ‘Sharing is Caring’
From an early age, children are taught that ‘Sharing is Caring.’
‘Sharing is Caring’ is a popular phrase in creches, in junior classes in schools and in children’s television shows. Why, there’s even a whole episode of Barney and Friends devoted to the theme ‘Sharing is Caring!’ (Series 8, Episode 3).
All the readings on the Second Sunday of Easter try to get across this concept and these values in a number of ways.
In the first reading (Acts 4: 32-35), we are told the ‘whole group of those who believed’ are ‘of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common’ (Acts 4: 32).
This is not some sort of political agenda, or some form of social engineering: it is because they are Easter people, because they share the grace of God through faith in the Resurrection. And the consequences are astounding: it is not that everyone becomes impoverished, but that there is ‘not a needy person among them’ (Acts 4: 34).
In the alternative reading from the Prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 26: 2-9, 19), the people are reminded that salvation or redemption is a collective, shared experience, and not just an individual experience.
God is with them through water and fire, from the days of the Exodus from Egypt, and he tells them:
‘Because you [you plural] are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you … Do not fear, for I am with you … so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he’ (Isaiah 26: 4-5).
In the psalm (Psalm 133), we are reminded ‘how good and pleasant it is to dwell together in unity’ (Psalm 133: 1). I particularly enjoy the psalmist’s imagery here: ‘It is like the precious oil … running down upon the beard’ (verse 2).
In the Epistle reading (I John 1: 1 to 2: 2), the writer proclaims the collective faith of the Church to a collective group of people who read his letter ‘so that you (you plural) also may have fellowship with us … so that our joy may be complete’ (1: 3-4).
Faith is a shared experience in the early Church, and it is shared both in giving and in receiving.
This sharing is a Resurrection experience, a shared Easter experience. But at first, it seems, it did not come easily to everyone among the apostles, certainly not in the case of Saint Thomas (see John 20: 19-31).
Where was he when the Risen Christ came and stood among them that first Easter evening? When he broke down all their barriers of apprehension and fear? When he showed them in his wounds that he was truly alive? When he said to them, for the first and second of three occasions, ‘Peace be with you’ (verses 19, 21)? When he breathed on them and shared with them the gift of the Holy Spirit (verse 22)?
Thomas was not with them; he was missing that first Easter evening (John 20: 24). For a full week he was missing. Was he not willing to share with everyone else, the remaining ten, in their grief, and sorrow, and fear?
And, when they told him about their shared experience, he was not willing to enter that experience, to share that experience, except on his own terms, his own individual terms: ‘Unless I see … put my finger … put my hand … I will not …’ (verse 25).
Four times, he insists on his own individual experience … me, me, me, and me.
And he is left waiting for a week (verse 26). It is only when he joins the others, sharing all their fears and all their hopes, that he finds he is able to, that he is invited to, share in their faith.
We are never actually told whether, on invitation, Thomas took the opportunity to have his own demands met. Instead, what matters is that when Christ arrives once again, with a third invitation to be at peace (verse 26), Thomas has come to a simple faith and recognises him as ‘My Lord, and my God!’ (verse 28).
In these Covid lockdown times, when many people are locked away in their rooms in fear, how does the Church replace those fears with the peace that Christ wants us to share in?
How can we be sharing and caring as we wait behind closed doors for our churches to open again?
1, I think it is imperative that the Church shares in the suffering of people today. We ought not be pleading a special case for the Church. It would be selfish to try to argue that opening our church doors is more important than grandparents seeing their grandchildren, than the jobs of people in the hospitality industry or so many other sectors of the economy, than the desire or needs of people to have a proper holiday.
2, Sharing is caring. Wearing facemasks, accepting cheerfully the present restrictions, not organising Church events that quickly become ‘super-spreader’ occasions, … that phone call, text, offer to shop … all are signs that the Church both shares and cares.
3, Christ came that ‘they might have life, and have it abundantly’ (John 10: 10). His death and resurrection are not just for me individually, for you individually, but for all (see John 10: 8), that they may have life – not just a mere existence but a life that is lived to the full.
We share now, we care now, because we, because the Church, must be Christ-like, like the Risen Christ.
Alternative Reading 2: Quasimodo Sunday
In some places, including parts of France and Germany, the day is called ‘Quasimodo Sunday.’ The Latin introit for the day begins: ‘Quasi modo geniti infantes …,’ ‘Like new-born infants …,’ words from I Peter 2: 2 reminding newly-baptised Christians and all baptised members of the Church that we have been renewed, like new-born infants, in the waters of Baptism.
Quasimodo, the sad hero in Victor Hugo’s novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831), was abandoned as a new-born baby in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris on this Sunday, and so was given the name Quasimodo by Archdeacon Claude Frollo who found him.
Perhaps Quasimodo and his love for Esméralda would make a wonderful sermon topic for some, seeking to take a light touch to Sunday’s readings/
It is a story of how people are often judged, and judged wrongly, because of their looks, their clothes and their social status. Quasimodo is despised because of the large, ugly wart on his face and his disfigured body, and he is ridiculed for his inarticulate speech and for his deafness. And Esméralda fails to appreciate the true beauty and undying nature of the love Quasimodo offers her.
Esméralda, for her part, despite her beauty, her compassion and her talents, is despised because of her ethnic background, her manners and her clothes: those who see her first see her as a gypsy, and so is side-lined and objectified. You might expect an anchorite to be a holy woman, but even Sister Gudele, figuratively representing the Church, curses the gypsy girl who is her true daughter, while Archdeacon Frollo’s all-consuming lust and desire for Esméralda run contrary to the ideals of his ministry and the mission of the Church.
Yet, there is a hint at the Easter theme in this story: Phoebus is not dead, Esméralda is put on trial and sentenced to death unjustly, and is saved from death by Quasimodo. In the end, despite its sadness, it is love and not death that has the final triumph in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Victor Hugo may be a little old-fashioned today, but Quasimodo and Esméralda have important lessons and values for us today. Beauty is not merely in the eye of the beholder, and seeing is not always believing. Quasimodo may appear to be ugly, but his love is pure and has an eternal quality. Esméralda appears to be beautiful, but those who are stirred to passion on seeing her put little value on love, respect and inner integrity.
In our society today, are we easily deceived by appearances?
Do we confuse what pleases me with beauty and with truth?
Do we allow those who have power to define the boundaries of trust and integrity merely to serve their own interests?
Are we are happy to live in a society where a fiscal lack of accountability on the part of politicians, and where obvious obfuscation are accepted instead of honest explanation or confession, as long as my future continues to look prosperous and I continue to be guaranteed a slice of the economic cake?
But appearances often deceive. Those who appear to be ugly are not so due to any fault or sinfulness, and they are often gentle and good-at-heart. Those who appear to be beautiful may threaten our personal confidence and security. And those who appear to guarantee economic, social or political stability may simply be serving their own needs and interests – as Esméralda finds out with Captain Phoebus and the jealous Archdeacon Frollo.
As I asked in the reflection on the Gospel reading, how often in life do we fail to make the vital connection between appearances and deceptions on the one hand, and, on the other hand, between seeing and believing?
The Temple of Apollo in Didyma … one of the most important shrines and temples in the classical world to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Alternative Reading 3: Thomas ‘the Twin’:
In this Gospel reading, we are told Saint Thomas ‘was called the Twin’ (verse 24), or ‘Didymus’ (Δίδυμος). But the name ‘Thomas’ comes from the Aramaic word for twin, T'oma (תאומא), so there is a tautological wordplay here.
Syrian tradition says the apostle’s full name was Judas Thomas, or Jude Thomas, but who was his twin brother … or sister?
In the past, I have often visited Didyma on the southern Anatolian coast. There the Didymaion was one of the most important shrines and temples in the classical world to Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. Didyma was close to the city of Miletus, by the banks of the Meander, and the Didymaion was also renowned for its oracle.
Greek and Roman authors linked the name Didyma to the twin temples or to temples of the twins Apollo and Artemis. Apollo was worshipped in Miletus under the name Delphinius, but at Didyma he was worshipped as Didymeus (Διδυμευς), and the annual festivals in Didyma were called the Didymeia.
Apollo was the sun-god, the sun of Zeus; he was the patron of shepherds and the guardian of truth, and in Greek and Roman mythology he died and rose again.
Unlike James and John, who are known as twin brothers, we are never told the name of Thomas’s twin. Was Thomas known as the Twin because he had once been enchanted by the cult of Thomas?
Is Thomas, who was once attracted to or distracted by the cult of the dying and risen Apollo, now unable to believe in the story of Christ the dying and risen God?
Is the story of Saint Thomas’s doubts an invitation to the followers of the cult of Apollo to turn to Christ, the true Son of God the Father, who is the Good Shepherd, who is the way, the truth and the light, who has died and who is truly risen?
John 20: 19-31 (NRSVA):
19 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.’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27 Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ 28 Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29 Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: White
The Greeting (from Easter Day until Pentecost):
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Penitential Kyries:
Lord God,
you raised your Son from the dead.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord Jesus,
through you we are more than conquerors.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Holy Spirit,
you help us in our weakness.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
The Collect of the Day (Easter II):
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
Grant us so to put away the leaven
of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Collect of the Word:
Risen Christ,
whose absence leaves us in despair
but whose presence is overwhelming:
breathe on us with your abundant life,
that where we cannot see
we may have courage to believe
that we may be raised with you.
Introduction to the Peace:
The risen Christ came and stood among his disciples and said, Peace be with you. Then were they glad when they saw the Lord. (John 20: 19, 20).
Preface:
Above all we praise you
for the glorious resurrection of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
the true paschal lamb who was sacrificed for us;
by dying he destroyed our death;
by rising he restored our life:
Post Communion Prayer:
Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him.
Deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessing:
The God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus
that great shepherd of the sheep,
through the blood of the eternal covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight:
or:
God the Father,
by whose glory Christ was raised from the dead,
raise you up to walk with him in the newness of his risen life:
Dismissal: (from Easter Day to Pentecost):
Go in the peace of the Risen Christ. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thanks be to God. Alleluia! Alleluia!
Suggested Hymns:
Acts 4: 32-35:
258, Christ the Lord is risen again
523, Help us to help each other, Lord
277, Love’s redeeming word is done
283,The day of Resurrection
Isaiah 26: 2-9, 19:
The canticle Urbs Fortitudinis
563, Commit your ways to God
646, Glorious things of thee are spoken
668, God is our fortress and our rock
16, Like a mighty river flowing
505, Peace be to this congregation
557, Rock of ages, cleft for me
Psalm 133:
518, Bind us together, Lord
522, In Christ there is no east or west
525, Let there be love shared among us
438, O thou, who at thy eucharist didst pray
507, Put peace into each other’s hands
661, Through the night of doubt and sorrow
I John 1: 1 to 2: 2:
87, Christ is the world’s light, he and none other
501, Christ is the world’s true light
613, Eternal light, shine in my heart
418, Here, O my Lord, I see thee face to face
553, Jesu, lover of my soul
587, Just as I am, without one plea
81, Lord, for the years your love has kept and guided
557, Rock of ages, cleft for me
624, Speak, Lord, in the stillness
490, The Spirit lives to set us free
373, To God be the glory! Great things he has done!
John 20: 19-31:
293, Breathe on me, Breath of God
255, Christ is risen, alleluia!
263, Crown him with many crowns
460, For all your saints in glory, for all your saints at rest (verses 1, 2k, 3)
415, For the bread which you have broken
454, Forth in the peace of Christ we go
219, From heav’n you came, helpless babe
268, Hail, thou once-despisèd Jesus
583, Jesu, my Lord, my God, my all
338, Jesus, stand among us
424, Jesus, stand among us at the meeting of our lives
652, Lead us, heavenly Father, lead us
305, O Breath of life, come sweeping through us
104, O for a thousand tongues to sing
279, O sons and daughters, let us sing (verses 1, 4-9)
307, Our great Redeemer, as he breathed
505, Peace be to this congregation
675, Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?
71, Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise
288, Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son
In addition, these hymns are appropriate for reflections on the doubts and faith of Saint Thomas:
372, Through all the changing scenes of life
661, Through the night of doubt and sorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
The hymns suggestions are from Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
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