A man was driving home from work one day, he stopped to watch a local Little League baseball game. As he sat down behind the bench on the first-base line, he asked one of the boys what the score was. "We're behind 9 to nothing," he answered with a smile. "Really," the man said. "You don't look very discouraged." "Discouraged?" the boy, asked with a puzzled look on His face. "Why should we be discouraged? We haven't been up to bat yet."
Love that attitude. There’s lots of instances of coming back . . . remember the MN Vikings trailing 33-0 against the Colts last December, and winning 39-36? Greatest NFL comeback of all time. Or the miracle on ice in 1980 when underdogs USA Olympic team made up of mostly college players, defeated the four-time defending gold medal winning Soviet team.
There’s lots of classic movies of coming back . . . Hidden Figures, Rocky, Sing, Karate Kid, Super Mario Brothers Movie. The unexpected reversal of things, the turnaround comeback that no one saw coming. What looks like defeat turns into victory, a humiliation ends up a triumph. And in all those stories, there’s at least one person who doubts it can happen.
In the gospel, we hear again about the greatest comeback story ever known. Here’s Jesus falsely accused, mocked by the crowds, abandoned by his friends, wiped, suffering, and nailed to a cross. But that’s not the end of the story. In todays’ gospel, we hear of two accounts of Jesus coming back . . . on Easter day, and then a week later (like today).
And good ole Thomas (or doubting Thomas as he’s been labeled) won’t believe that Jesus made a comeback, a return, a resurrection . . . it’s just too unbelievable, too wild, too good to be true. Thomas represents all of us, that is, when we don’t put our faith in God. This is when we rely only on our own calculations and think we have to have it all figured out, explained, rationalized, or we can’t go along with it.
This weekend is also called Divine Mercy weekend/Sunday. It is when we are called to believe in God’s mercy. And many of us doubt that God could be so merciful, for we have our own sins, our flaws, our mistakes and can’t possibly fathom that God could, or would, show us mercy and be understanding. But that’s why Jesus arises from a tomb, so that we can arise from our tombs.
Where is it in your life, your story, have you been doubting that you could have any hope of becoming different? That is thinking, “Oh well, this is how it is. This is how it’s always going to be. This is my pain, my hurt, my big mistake, my hidden secret. And things are not going to change.” Notice that Jesus, fully resurrected still has the signs of his wounds. He shows them to Thomas. That’s our message . . . that we can be wounded AND resurrected at the same time! We don’t have to have it all figured out, all rationalized. We can still be hurting, confused, wounded . . . and invited to start over, have hope, be renvewed.
How? It’s often only when, or as, we experience great suffering or great love that we can be transformed. Think of that . . . it might be that through that place of hurt in your life, or through that place of deep loving that you are to come out of your tomb. It might be that because of that hurt in your life, or because of that deep loving you experience that you are invited to arise.
And not to simple come back to the way things were . . . but to a newness, a new hope. As St. Peter said in the second reading, “God gives us a new birth to a living hope.” That is, something even better than you could imagine. It’s unbelievable what God has in store for you. So stop doubting, this is not someone else’s story, this is your story! As John wrote at the end of today’s gospel, “May you come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that through this belief you may HAVE LIFE in his name.”