Imagine this… you take a BIG test in school and you know that you did really badly. Yet when you get the test back, the teacher writes a note on it and says, “You must have had a bad day when you took this… I’ll give you an ‘A’ just because.”
Or imagine this… you are worried about finances and your landlord gives you a letter. It says, “I have decided not to charge you for next month’s rent.” It’s free.
Well probably, if either of those things happened, your first response would be, “What the . . ? What’s the catch?” Something like Thomas’ response in the gospel… “There’s no way. I don’t believe it.”
It’s not that Tom didn’t want to believe, it’s just that it was probably too good to be true.
I think a better way of understanding Tom’s response is more like, “MY GOD! It’s just too good to be true!” [said with great excitement!] I think that is the invitation we have just one week after Easter on what is called Divine Mercy Sunday . . . in the midst of your faults and errors, we are invited to receive God’s unlimited mercy . . . . and that is joy. Sheer joy!
Yet this is still a struggle for many of us, because we still have our worries, our struggles with homework and worries about jobs, relationship woes. And the huge things occurring in the world like in Ferry ship that capsized in Korea or the missing jet liner in the Indian Ocean.
How can we have joy and sorrow at the same time?
Ah! That’s because we’re missing an important message: joy and sorrow are not opposites, but it is their opposites that can cause damage.
For the opposite of joy is CYNICISM
the opposite of sorrow is CALLOUSNESS.
Cynicism is so easy to fall into.
It’s rooted in the assumption that everyone is always in control.
And callousness is the inability to feel . . . that follows from the fear of losing control.
Of course, there’s sorrow, but we don’t have to be callous, unfeeling, and cold. And I think one of strongest barriers to see resurrection is cynicism, that is, to be cynical.
This is a time of joy.
“Where is the resurrection?” the old Priest asked the group of learned women and men. They laughed. “What a thing to ask! Is not the resurrection everywhere?” Then the Priest answered his own question. “The Resurrection is wherever you decided to let God rise!”