What would you do if somebody came to you asking: “I should like to see Jesus.” Where would you take the person to? Saint Philip and Andrew, the two Apostles from today’s Gospel, knew where Jesus was. By the way, someone once said that if you, as a Christian, don’t know where Jesus is, you should be at least know someone who does.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Apart from my Catholic beliefs I have some beliefs that technically don’t come from the Bible or the Catechism, one of them is: “Don’t choose a way because it is simply an easy one.” That’s why I would like to invite you to take a more difficult way to show Jesus to others, not simply sending them to an expert. To achieve that let me go to the week which happened after Jesus Resurrection. If you think that it is too early to talk about the Resurrection as we are still in Lent, go back to the Gospel of St John, chapter 12, verses 20-30, which was proclaimed a few minutes ago. Do you know when the event from today’s Gospel took place? Let me read to you a few verses from the passage which proceeds our passage: “The crowds who had come up for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took branches of palms and went to meet him shouting: “Hosanna!” Jesus found a donkey and mounted it.” Can you think about the day it all happened? Yes, it was Palm Sunday. If you think that on Palm Sunday Jesus was only riding a donkey you are very much mistaken. He did some serious preaching and teaching as well. He also had some heated discussions with the leaders of the Jews. He also had Greeks coming to see him. A busy day, wasn’t it? The Gospel for this Mass it is Palm Sunday Gospel, could you believe that? The donkey has run away. The palm branches have been already trampled down. But it is still Palm Sunday because Palm Sunday isn’t about palms or the donkey, it is about Jesus.
Look, if the Church gives us the Palm Sunday reading before the Palm Sunday is actually upon us next week, I am confident that a Resurrection story mentioned today is not going to ruin your Easter this year. Anyway, we all know the ending of the Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum, don’t we?
The story I want to recall is the story of St Thomas, who is also called… Doubting Thomas which I don’t like. I prefer calling him like our Easter Christians do: Believing Thomas. Why didn’t Thomas believe first? Because he didn’t see Jesus. Why didn’t see Jesus? And that’s the secret of finding out where Jesus is! Thomas didn’t see Jesus because he wasn’t with the other disciples. He decided to go somewhere else. Now, how come that he came to believe in Jesus? Because he had seen him. When did he see him? On the Sunday after Easter Sunday when he was with the other Apostles. Thomas’ transformation from doubting to believing, from uncertainty to certainty of faith, happened when he was again part of the community of believers.
My Dear friends! We have some breathtaking places here in Victoria where we could take people to inspire in them search for God, the Creator of those things, but those things are more like the donkey and the palm branches from the Palm Sunday, it is not the essence, the essence it is Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
That deep request of the Greeks from the Gospel: “We should like to see Jesus” isn’t limited to what the eyes can perceive. Seeing here is equivalent of believing. What those visitors from Greece asked for can be expressed fully when we translate their request as: “We should like to believe in Jesus.”
As we, believers, are approaching the Easter Celebration, let us renew ourselves in what Jesus once said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Let’s not look for Jesus on the Moon but among our fellow Christians, who, even if at times they resemble the Doubting Thomas more than the Believing Thomas, are still the surest community where one can find Jesus, because Jesus hasn’t changed his mind. He still stands by his words: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Apart from my Catholic beliefs I have some beliefs that technically don’t come from the Bible or the Catechism, one of them is: “Don’t choose a way because it is simply an easy one.” That’s why I would like to invite you to take a more difficult way to show Jesus to others, not simply sending them to an expert. To achieve that let me go to the week which happened after Jesus Resurrection. If you think that it is too early to talk about the Resurrection as we are still in Lent, go back to the Gospel of St John, chapter 12, verses 20-30, which was proclaimed a few minutes ago. Do you know when the event from today’s Gospel took place? Let me read to you a few verses from the passage which proceeds our passage: “The crowds who had come up for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took branches of palms and went to meet him shouting: “Hosanna!” Jesus found a donkey and mounted it.” Can you think about the day it all happened? Yes, it was Palm Sunday. If you think that on Palm Sunday Jesus was only riding a donkey you are very much mistaken. He did some serious preaching and teaching as well. He also had some heated discussions with the leaders of the Jews. He also had Greeks coming to see him. A busy day, wasn’t it? The Gospel for this Mass it is Palm Sunday Gospel, could you believe that? The donkey has run away. The palm branches have been already trampled down. But it is still Palm Sunday because Palm Sunday isn’t about palms or the donkey, it is about Jesus.
Look, if the Church gives us the Palm Sunday reading before the Palm Sunday is actually upon us next week, I am confident that a Resurrection story mentioned today is not going to ruin your Easter this year. Anyway, we all know the ending of the Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum, don’t we?
The story I want to recall is the story of St Thomas, who is also called… Doubting Thomas which I don’t like. I prefer calling him like our Easter Christians do: Believing Thomas. Why didn’t Thomas believe first? Because he didn’t see Jesus. Why didn’t see Jesus? And that’s the secret of finding out where Jesus is! Thomas didn’t see Jesus because he wasn’t with the other disciples. He decided to go somewhere else. Now, how come that he came to believe in Jesus? Because he had seen him. When did he see him? On the Sunday after Easter Sunday when he was with the other Apostles. Thomas’ transformation from doubting to believing, from uncertainty to certainty of faith, happened when he was again part of the community of believers.
My Dear friends! We have some breathtaking places here in Victoria where we could take people to inspire in them search for God, the Creator of those things, but those things are more like the donkey and the palm branches from the Palm Sunday, it is not the essence, the essence it is Our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ.
That deep request of the Greeks from the Gospel: “We should like to see Jesus” isn’t limited to what the eyes can perceive. Seeing here is equivalent of believing. What those visitors from Greece asked for can be expressed fully when we translate their request as: “We should like to believe in Jesus.”
As we, believers, are approaching the Easter Celebration, let us renew ourselves in what Jesus once said: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Let’s not look for Jesus on the Moon but among our fellow Christians, who, even if at times they resemble the Doubting Thomas more than the Believing Thomas, are still the surest community where one can find Jesus, because Jesus hasn’t changed his mind. He still stands by his words: “Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
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