Para la versión en español, haga clic aquí.
On the evening of that first day, . . . Jesus came and stood in their midst. –John 20:19
Jesus chooses to reveal his Resurrection to the disciples as a group. We know from next Sunday’s Gospel that Thomas wasn’t there, and Jesus doesn’t show himself to Thomas until he returns to the group. This is significant. When it comes to revelation, the group is where it’s at. We might consider this the next time we’re convinced God is telling us something no one else has figured out yet.
This can feel like bad news to the roughly 50 percent of us who are introverted. Introverts like to process experiences alone, focusing their concentration most effectively in solitude. We’re also territorial, reserved, slow to speak or act until we can reflect, and prefer the rich interior life to the chitchat universe around us. Maybe that’s why Thomas absented himself from the upper room that night. He couldn’t take one more minute of the sighing, breast-beating, and self-reporting going on around him. He needed to think. Yet consider this, my fellow introverts: Jesus offers peace and forgiveness to the Church as a community. Together is where the action is.
Why might public revelations be more helpful than private ones?
Why is sainthood a job for communities and not individuals?
Let us pray: Come, Holy Spirit, and fill your Church with gifts of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, courage, reverence, and awe! Make saints of us whether we sit in the sanctuary or the pews and teach us all the meaning of holy living. For this world is in certain need of our courageous witness. Amen.
While The Gospel at Home takes a break in the summer months, we’ll be drawing our weekly reflections from Exploring the Sunday Readings.
Image credit: Good News Productions International and College Press Publishing
