Deacon Tom's Homily for Sunday, April 16th - The Second Sunday of Easter

IMAGINE THAT ST. THOMAS THE Apostle is speaking to us here this morning. “Hi, Everybody. Everybody good? Nice Church!

IN TODAY’S GOSPEL, I’M CALLED “Didymus” which means “twin” in Greek, because I do have a twin. Each one of you here today is my twin!

I’VE BEEN TOLD YOU HAVE THREE questions for me. First, on that first Easter Sunday evening, why wasn’t I there in that locked room with the other Apostles? Second, why didn’t I believe what the others told me about that evening? And, third, what was it like to put my fingers into Jesus’ nail marks and into His side?

WELL, FIRST OF ALL, THE REASON I wasn’t in the upper room with the others was because everything I believed in, everything I gave myself to had collapsed! My Beloved Leader had just been arrested and horribly crucified! How could God allow this man who showed only compassion and forgiveness, who taught only kindness, how could God let Him be brutally executed as a common criminal?

I WAS DEVASTATED, COMPLETELY overwhelmed. I just had to be alone.

TO ANSWER YOUR SECOND question, when the other Apostles told me that Jesus had appeared to them that first Easter evening, it was just too much to be believed! Impossible! No one had ever come back from the dead! Were they out of their minds? I refused to believe it unless I saw it with my own two eyes! But, deep down, a part of me was hoping beyond hope that it was really true!

AS FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF placing my finger into Jesus’ wounds, each of you will one day have this same experience when you first enter heaven. You will see the Risen Jesus standing there in front of you, dressed in a long white garment, His Glorified Body aglow. His voice is surprisingly familiar as He says: “Peace be with you.” You feel His Peace entering your heart, just as I did, filling you with His Gentleness, warming you, calming you, healing you. His Hands reach out to you and you see His Glorious Wounds.

BUT IT’S WHEN YOU LOOK INTO His eyes, my twin, then you will finally understand everything. You too will see God there. This changes everything! As you fall to your knees, these words will come rushing out of your mouth, just as they did out of mine, “My Lord and My God!”