As the Father Has Sent Me, So I Send You
What are we supposed to do after Easter? Br. Nathaniel Maria Mayne, O.P., reflects on the Gospel for the Second Sunday of Easter.
This
Sunday has many names: Second Sunday of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, Octave day
of Easter, White Sunday, Quasimodo Sunday, Bright Sunday, Low Sunday, and
Doubting Thomas Sunday. Why so many names? It’s almost like we aren’t sure what
to do after Easter.
Well, that’s exactly what the Apostles were feeling. In our Gospel for today, we see the Apostles, huddled in a room, hiding out of fear. A few days ago Jesus died, and now they are hearing that Jesus has come back from the dead. What do you even do in this situation?
Jesus appeared to them in that room and told them exactly what they should do, “As the Father has sent me, even so, I send you.” The Apostles are sent on mission. Not only that, but their mission is a reflection of Jesus’s mission as sent from the Father.
So, why did the Father send the Son? In the Gospel of John, the two biggest reasons for the Father sending the Son are to manifest and to save. The Father sent Jesus so that He might manifest, so that He might reveal who God is. It is this truth that liberates humanity from the slavery of ignorance to live in the freedom of the children of God. In revealing this truth of who God is, the Father sent Jesus to save humanity. He sent Him into the world so that the world might be sanctified by his divine presence.
So too
with us. Like the Father sent Jesus, Jesus sends us to manifest who He is and
to sanctify the world by our presence. In doing so, we allow Jesus’s
resurrection to touch the lives of others as it did Thomas. By sharing the
truth of who God is and living as children of God in the world, we allow the
light of the resurrection to shine in every corner of the world, and in doing
so, it will burn more brightly in our hearts.
Image: Paolo Moranda Cavazzola, The Incredulity of St. Thomas, 1520, Public Domain
