We see Christ with eyes of faith

April 27, 2003 -- Second Sunday of Easter

	Fr. Richard Ver Bust

Sometimes we may think of how much more wonderful it might have been to know Jesus in the flesh. Are we second class Christians for not having that experience? Not according to today's Gospel reading. John wanted his church community to realize that they really knew Jesus. They, with eyes of faith, could see and know him just as intimately.

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The image of church that emerges from Luke's Acts of the Apostles is an idealized one but one that must be our dream. It is interesting that the author describes its life not only in terms of witnessing the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, but also the way in which they grew in relationship to one another. It might be true that these two ideas are intimately connected. They witnessed by their lives and how they treated one another. The realization that they in helping one another really were also helping Christ. The inner transformation was bound to be seen by others and what greater witness could be given. The basis of their union was Jesus' lordship. So spiritual witnessing was expressed in the material and physical well being of all in the community.

A fundamental fact, that the author of our second reading realized was that by baptism we have become children of God. This new birth gives us the basis upon which all our beliefs and actions arise. So it is not just an intellectual assent of faith that transforms us but the whole interior transformation that God effects in us. Love relates us to God as love relates God to us. God's love means actively seeking our good. In turn, our love means actively seeking the good of all God's children. We all belong to the family of God and, therefore, have a relationship with one another. The author of the letter is seeking to explain what the Acts of the Apostles in the first reading told us the early church sought to live.

The author of the Gospel plays with the word "see" and suggests that there are many layers and meanings. The Risen Lord appears to his disciples. It is on his initiative and not something created or energized by the disciples. It is the same Christ but Christ has changed. The wounds or marks of his death are signs of this truth. They are means by which disciples see this and know Jesus is still with them.

We sometimes put Thomas down by calling him "doubting Thomas." In reality, the author of the Gospel says that he is the only disciple that really believed in the Risen Lord and his profession of faith is the most complete of any person in the New Testament, when he says, "My Lord and my God." It is the profession of faith that must eventually be the belief of every disciple of Christ. Thus Thomas has moved from physically seeing Christ to seeing with eyes of faith.

The final message that John leaves us with is that all who see with eyes of faith will have the same divine life that Jesus promised to the disciples in the upper room. He breathed upon them symbolically conferring the new life they must have. It recalls God breathing life into Adam. Now the Spirit of God is given to them. That same Spirit of God is given to every generation of Christians who participate in his life and in his mission. This life of faith connects us with that first generation of disciples. We live in union with Christ energized and transformed by the Spirit Christ first gave on the evening of his resurrection from the dead.

(Fr. Ver Bust holds the title of professor emeritus in religious studies at St. Norbert College, De Pere.)