Journey's Weekly Homilies

Second Sunday of Easter
April 27, 2003
Homily by Marcia

Acts 4:32-35
1 John 5:1-6
John 20:19-31

Auschwitz, Bataan, Dresden, Saigon, Hiroshima, Nicaragua, Wounded Knee, Jonestown, Chernobyl, Nagasaki, Cape Town, Selma, Soweto, Columbine, Rwanda, Beirut, Oklahoma City....In a world like this, is it any wonder that Thomas would have doubts?  The man he respected, admired, looked up to, was dead.  Jesus, the man with compassion so wide it touched everyone, the gentle healer, the clever teacher, was no longer alive.  He had been cruelly flogged and executed three days earlier.  Thomas was in no mood to listen to stories about ghosts and hallucinations.  But actually seeing the friend he thought he had lost forever broke through his understanding
of what was possible in life. 

The problems people face on this planet, starvation, lack of clean water, vanishing forests, overpopulation, deadly viruses, war, can seem overwhelming.  When we find ourselves face to face with death or disease or inhumanity, we have a choice as to how we can respond.  We can try to protect ourselves.  We can hide behind closed doors.  We can build bigger and better weapons.  We can build an elaborate Star Wars missile defense system to defend ourselves against terrorists armed with commercial
airliners and box cutters.  Or we can acknowledge that life comes with no guarantees, and let go of our fear.  Why do we spend so much time worrying about whether or not we are going to die?  Why do we worry about a question we already know the answer to?  Instead, why don't we let go of the fear of death and begin to live?

Death is like the period at the end of a sentence.  Do we judge the value of a sentence by how long it is?  Do we judge the value of a song by how long it is?  Do we judge the value of a homily by how long it is?  Wouldn't it be great if this homily went on forever?  We need to let go of the guarantees we keep looking for, the hope that if we just play it
safe and do all the right things we will live forever.  We need to think less about how long we live, and more about how we live.  The firemen who rushed into the world trade center to save lives didn't live as long as they might have, but they lived well.

We have a choice about how we respond to life, with fear, or by reaching out.  Fear and poverty can lead to looting and fighting.  But other responses are also possible.  Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in the book "Eyes of the Heart", describes the people of Haiti. "The average Haitian survives on less than 250 U.S. dollars a year.  This requires imagination every day.  There is no welfare.  In Cite Soleil, Por-au-Prince's largest slum, 400,000 people live in 2.5 square miles, in perhaps the worst living conditions in the Western Hemisphere. When you go there, you have the impression that the people never sleep; there is activity day and night.  This is because there is not enough
physical space for everyone to lie down at the same time.  They sleep by turns.  What sustains these people?"

"Consider this:  A one month baby was found in a pile of garbage by one of our teachers.  Ants had eaten part of the child's hand.  The teacher, Rose, is a poor woman.  She already has two children.  Yet she spontaneously adopted the baby, naming him Little Moses.  This woman teaches that beyond market values there are human values.  That no child can be thrown away."

"How do these people survive?  Why is suicide practically unheard of in Haiti?  To understand, we must move beyond statistics.  To see the richness of the Haitian people, we must examine cultural factors:  wealth of humor, warmth of character, ease of laughter, dignity, solidarity.  We have traditions in Haiti that allow us to share food when we can.  We raise the child of a friend or relative who cannot.  We work together in a Konbit to bring in a crop, or build a neighbor's house in exchange for a meal shared at the end of the day.  We can make one more place on a tap-tap, a covered pick-up truck that serves as public transportation, that is already impossibly full.  The majority of Haitians survive in a
vast, informal economy that remains beyond the statisticians, yet provides sustenance for 70% of the urban workforce.  And then we still smile, and we still laugh.  In Haiti, we are rich in these.  There is a wealth of spirit here, and from it a third way emerges." According to Aristide, his people have found, at least sometimes, the way of reaching out, of sustaining one another. The disciples had the door locked because they were afraid.  Jesus sent them out into the world.  He told them not to be afraid, he gave them
his peace and he sent them out.

Thomas was in despair because Jesus had died.  Jesus came to Thomas and Thomas remembered his love for Jesus, remembered how much he had wanted to follow Jesus.  Thomas realized that Jesus' death didn't have to be the end of his dream of a world where people reached out to one another, were compassionate to one another, helped each other.  Jesus reminded Thomas of why he had followed Jesus, and that the reasons he had followed Jesus still existed.  Thomas' despair turned to hope.  Instead of waiting behind closed doors, he opened the door and went out, into an adventure he couldn't imagine or predict.  We must all let go of the fear of death and step into the new life that beckons beyond the door.  There is a resurrection.  Alleluia.