9 26, April, 2020 catholicweekly.com.au The Resurrection of Christ by Nicolas Bertin, a French painter (1667 – 1736) Jesus is more than a great man, revolutionary teacher, spiritual guru. He is the revelation and power of the unseen God” Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP continuity, and Jesus’ answer is that there is no rupture be- tween the I of this world and the I of the resurrection. But hold on: Jesus ends with the last and greatest of His beatitudes, “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.” So shouldThom- as have asked his questions and demanded his proofs? Or should he have stopped all the questions and just be- lieved? Both, of course. Jesus is man and so we can see and touch Him, be inspired by His teaching, impressed by His actions. But Jesus is more than a great man, revolution- ary teacher, spiritual guru. He is the revelation and power of the unseen God. Thomas sees the man and professes the God. He is an example of an integrated intelligence, of perception, imagination and memory working together to grasp reality, a man of both faith and reason. “Seeing is believing” in the sense that it often precedes and prompts our understanding; but “Be- lieving is seeing” also, seeing more deeply, beyond the ob- vious or the comfortable. On 13th August 1967, at St Michael’s Lane Cove, Mon- signor Hughie McGuire gave me my First Holy Commu- nion. Sr Mary Eucharia, a Sister of Mercy and my Year 2 teacher, prepared me for the sacrament, teaching me in simple terms that this was the bodily Jesus but also the spiritual God. She thought it would help us to grasp this if we saidThomas’ words ‘My Lord and my God’ at the con- secration. More than five de- cades later I’m still doing so. What might all this say to us in a time when, in St. Pe- ter’s today, we are “plagued by all sorts of trials ( 1Pet 1:3- 9). His thought is that this is a test of our mettle, and un- doubtedly our character and ideals are being tried. Peter challenges us to demonstrate more than or- dinary human virtue: Chris- tians under pressure must re- flect not only Jesus the perfect human being, but also the supernatural faith and hope from Jesus who is God. If that is true of individu- al believers in times of trial, it should also be true of the Christian community. So our first reading ( Acts 2:42- 7) challenges the Church to be faithful to the apostolic teaching if it is to drawmore people day by day; to be faith- ful to fraternity between its members, so they share ever more gladly and generously; above all, to be faithful to “the Breaking of the Bread and the During this global pandemic, EWTN will con n nue praying for your inten n ons, par r cularly for protec c on and healing from COVID-19. Lord Jesus, have mercy on us and heal our world! Contact us for more information on how you can watch EWTN EWTN is a non-pro fi t organization supported entirely by donations Email:
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