Today’s readings: Acts 2,42-47; 1 Peter 1,3-9; John 20, 19-31.

On this Sunday after Easter, we are being interrogated on the signs we are giving as the Church today in the face of the rampant scepticism and agnosticism of our generations, represented in today’s gospel by Thomas not just doubting but in deep disbelief. Our age can be convinced only by signs, no longer by words.

There were very concrete signs given by the first communities that made of the Church itself a living and credible witness to what it was proclaiming. The reading from Acts narrates how the first communities made a deep impression on everyone mainly not by preaching but by the communion they lived. The early Church was not in the first place a teaching Church, neither was it a self-referential Church struggling mainly for its survival.

We read also from John’s gospel that Jesus, giving his spirit to the first disciples gathered together, commissioned them mainly to forgive sins. Jesus speaks of sins to be forgiven and sins to be retained. It is very important for us today to go deeply in this. Which are the sins to be forgiven and the sins to be retained?

Whenever we speak of sins, many a time what comes to mind are the weaknesses we fall into, the commandments we fail to observe, and, if you allow me, the petty things we’ve been brought up to pester the priest with whenever we go to confess. But is Jesus referring to these sins? Or are there other sins that most probably escape our scanning machines when we seek to examine our consciences?

We are being called to discern with honesty the concrete signs we are giving in today’s culture. The early Christians felt so strongly about their faith that the impact they had on their surroundings was tremendous. People had been waiting far too long to grasp concretely who the God of their forefathers really was and to come to terms with their faith. They were frustrated of promises that seemed never to materialise. Their religion was waning and was having little or no impact on themselves and their surroundings.

The new Church no longer stood for a slavish religiosity. The way things unfolded in the face of a strong spirit of scepticism and persecution, together with a strong sense of community that permeated those who believed, seemed to respond adequately to the deep insecurities the old faith carried with it.

With a deep sense of discernment, we can easily gather that even today people are fed up of futile promises and void cliches. The world is too busy to keep track of the way we celebrate Christ alive today. We ourselves seem to have lost connection with the speed with which things around us change, and for much of the world we live in we seem to be stuck in the past, and quite frankly offer no remedies to people’s worries.

There is surely something missing in all we perpetuate. The sins to be forgiven nowadays are not failing to go to Mass on Sunday, or entering a new relationship after a failed marriage. They are not the sins we commit in our intimacies and individually. What we are mostly to blame for today is the failure to cultivate a true sense of community and the difficulty to come across as joyful disciples who really know what they believe in, and are strong enough to stand for it.

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