SOLEMNITY OF THE HOLY TRINITY

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life”  

Jn. 3, 16-18

Rev. Alexander Diaz

This Sunday we celebrate  The Solemnity of the Holy Trinity, a profound mystery and only thru the light of faith can we truly understand its’ fullness, a simple and short reasoning is not enough to understand such huge mystery.  All our lives are marked with the gift of the Trinity. 

When we are born to the supernatural life thru baptismal grace, we do so in a trinitary manner, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Also, when we begin the Holy Eucharist, it is done in the same manner, hence all we do in our daily lives is marked by the Holy Trinity. 

 The Trinity is a mystery of Communion , is God in us, God with us and God above us.  Is the mystery that penetrates and wraps our lives and our history.   The Spirit is God within us.

From Him comes our hope that wanders toward the fulfillment with Christ. He inspired the prophets with the Word of God, He acts in the hearts of the believers to accept the Word of God,  He gathers God’s children around the Son.  He inspires the prayers we direct to the Father.  He has been poured out in our hearts and He is more intimate within us than we are to ourselves.   Is the Son of God with us, the One who was born to be our brother, our companion, our neighbor. 

The Son is the face of God, who sees the Son sees the Father. It is His word made flesh in the womb of Mary, in front of whom is brought to date our maximum responsibility.   The Father is the one who summons us to Jesus with His Word and to whom we go thru Jesus with the impulses of the Holy Spirit. 

It is God above us and in front of us, Who Is to be seen and to come, the reservation of our infinite hope.   The Holy Trinity is exactly the same God that have come in communion with us.  Is the Father who has become “our Father”, is the Son who has become our brother, is the Spirit who has become our life.  The Holy Trinity is the mystery that establishes our coexistence. 

In order to live this mystery it is required that all of us be “ourselves” in front of the Father who summons us, that we all become “brothers” in the Son who accompany us and that we all participate in the same feeling, the same hope, the same love, and the same life, thanks to the Spirit that has been poured in our hearts.  ¿How can we explain that God is one, at the same time is Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

Maybe we might say that in each love there are always three realities or subjects: one that loves, one that is loved and the love that unites both.   In a general line, this shows us that the loving reality of God is His relationship with the human being.   

The text the Church proposes today is like a synthesis of the reality of God and the human being.  Jesus came to save us by forgiving our sins by the love that God has for us.  It also tells us that God gave His only son for our salvation.   Our world, so self sufficient, possibly do not understand these words.  Some might think, probably that he does not need salvation, that he is the only main character in his history and his hope.   But we all know this is not so.  

Humans need God’s help to be real humans.  Humans need His word, His life to be truly happy.  Even when today’s world blinds and dazzles me with its’ proposal explosions, only the light of God will give me an explanation to the unworthiness of my human reality.  The proposal that God offers us is the one based on love.

Many Christians are established in the permanent condemnation of themselves and the condemnation of others. They are “prophets of calamities”. Their announcement of the Gospel is not an invitation to discover the love that God has for us, but rather an invitation that we love God.  We love, who loves us.

If you do not announce to me the love that God has for me, it is very difficult for me to spontaneously love God.  All announcements and evangelization  acts have to always begin with a question ¿Do you know who really loves you?  All pedagogical conversion is to simply dig in the reality that God loves you and your personal answer to that love.  LOVE PAYS WITH LOVE.

Jesus opens the doors of the love of God to the whole humanity.  He does not condemn anyone. He only tries to heal people’s hurts from sin and life.  Each time I have the impression that life is like a huge boat where humanity sails, where each one of us have to fill in the holes where suffering and despair come thru.  

We all sail thru the same eternal sea. Together we go in the same ship of life. To be a Christian is to be sure that God also sails with us, He does not leave us alone or unprotected.    

That the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit allow us the necessary graces to live our Christian lives in constant touch with the divine.  Receiving undeserving graces.   To  be able to live dwelled in Trinitary graces.

AMEN!!  

 

SOLEMNITY OF PENTECOST

Receive the Holy Spirit, Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them”

Jn 20, 19-23

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Pentecost, the feast of the Holy Spirit, this is the feast in which the church is born and consolidates without fear or doubt, the Church is not afraid.  Today’s liturgy tells us that after the Ascension of Jesus, the Apostles with the Mother of Jesus were reunited.  It was the day of the Feast of Pentecost. 

They were afraid to go out and preach. Suddenly, there came from the sky a noise like a “strong driving wind” and “tongues as of fire” which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. In those days there were many travelers and visitors from Jerusalem that came from all parts of the world to celebrate the feast of the Jews’ Pentecost . 

Each one heard the Apostles speak in their own native language and they understood what they said perfectly.  All of them, the Apostles, as of that day, were no longer scared and went out to preach to all the world Jesus’ teachings.

The Holy Spirit filled them with the strength to fulfill the great mission they had to accomplish, bring Jesus words to the whole world, to all the nations and baptized all men in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  On that day, the Church truly came to existence as such.

¿Who is the Holy Spirit?

The Holy Spirit is God, the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. The church teaches us that the Holy Spirit is the love that exists between the Father and the Son.  That love is so big and so perfect that it forms a Third Person.  The Holy Spirit fills our souls in Baptism and afterwards, in a perfect manner, in Confirmation. 

With God’s holy love inside of us, we are able to love God and our neighbor.  The Holy Spirit helps us to fulfill our lives compromise with Jesus.  We are call to grow in the Spirit.  We are invited to mature both humanly and spiritually, to do so we need the constant presence of God in our lives.   

The Word reminds us that the disciples were reunited (as many times we reunite ourselves), but they were behind closed doors (it does not refers only to physical doors but also the doors of our hearts),  they were afraid (I have to decipher the fears that surround my life, fears that do not allow me to grow as a person or as a believer).

  

 The Lord knows very well that to carry out the titanic mission of growing and presenting God to the world,  it is necessary to have the help of God Himself.   The human being does not have enough strength to, on his own, stay in the constant presence of God. That is the reason why we need His help, His breath and His encouragement.

¿Do you live under the Spirit’s law?

The fruits of the Holy Spirit are the testimony of His important actions within us.   We are Christians in the measure that we allow God to transform us and prepare us to be His followers.  “Even though they were behind closed doors, Jesus does not force the locks or give an aggressive blow to the doors where the disciples were.”

 He comes in silently.  He filters Himself thru the walls.  They were full of fear, but were reunited remembering and recalling everything that had taken place.  It was such a shock to see the resurrected Jesus, that fear left them and the Church was created. 

Hence, the Church appears, therefore, with these elements:  - they were reunited, - they accepted the presence of the resurrected Jesus, -opening the doors of their souls, - overcoming fear, - receiving the Holy Spirit.  The Church is the homeland of the soul.  To be Church is to have the doors opened, be reunited without fear. 

Whoever wishes to live the Gospel from these premises, is the one who sees what the Holy Spirit is doing to him each day.  People who live full of fears and insecurities will be inefficient disciples because in them, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are not present.  

Whoever lives cowardly, only cowardice will transmit to others.  Whoever thinks that faith is something so intimate that there is no need to share it, will find himself locked in his selfishness, alone and without the presence of the Holy Spirit. (Mario Santana Bueno)

Today,  the Feast of Pentecost, we have to ask ourselves about the process of maturity in our faith. ¿Thru all these years, have my heart been getting closer to the spiritual maturity that I have been called to have? ¿Which are the locks that are so hard to open in my life and why it is so? ¿Which are the fears I still have to overcome? ¿Do I accept the Holy Spirit in my life?

I pray that the Holy Spirit strengthens us with His light and purify us to be good Christians.   Come sweet guest of our souls and give us your peace and joy.  

Amen!!

    

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations”

(Mt. 28, 16-20)

Rev. Alexander Díaz

The Ascension of the Lord is a huge celebration with big hope to the us, who believe in Jesus Christ and follow his Word, because we know that He first went to Heaven, so that we all may follow Him.  Follow His footsteps and His walk towards the glory of the eternal Father.  This is why the celebration of this mystery gives us the assurance that we too will follow Him there.  The gospel of the previous Sunday told us in a very clear and concise way that:

“In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places, ff there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be. (Jn. 2-3)

Jesus has opened a special place for us in Heaven, so that we too may participate and live forever.  The right to heaven should not be for the human being a simple option, but rather, an obligation to be true followers of Jesus.  Our following Him will be rewarded when we live in heaven eternally.

Today’s gospel has some elements that disconcert me, because they really represent the human attitude when face free divinity.  I feel that it is hard for us to completely believe in this free divinity, and that was happening to the apostles the day of the ascension of the Lord.  The Word tells us the disciples worshipped Jesus, but some of them “had doubts”.

They did not believe easily, they wanted proof and reasons to know if the resurrected was really Jesus or someone else.  I fear that our life on this earth will always be splatter on these two instances:  of worship and doubt.  The human being is capable of worshipping and doubting at the same time.

Our fragile human nature weights in many instances and that makes us stumble, but even though we stumble, we should not give up because His powerful presence will allow us to be better men and women in our society and the world. 

Jesus tells us that He has all authority in heaven and in earth.  ¿How are we going to understand Jesus’ authority when we see that this world is going on a complete different path from His  message? This is the question many of us make ourselves: ¿If God is so powerful, why is the world so troubled?  The world is troubled when we don’t pay any mind to what God indicates. If we live by the Gospel, with dignity, the world will be more alike to what God wants. 

The wickedness in the world is the absence of God.  God has the power to offer the human being a message, His own person, a God that gives Himself up for us.  In order to accept God I need to balance out my mind and my heart and make an option from my liberty.  God has the power to invite us always from the bottom of our hearts to follow Him joyfully. (Mario Santana Bueno) 

I am impacted by the mandate Jesus gives to the twelve, because it gathers the group’s vision of all the human beings.  For the Jews, they were the only ones who had access to salvation; everyone else was not call by the Lord to be with Him.  Jesus breaks the scheme, because He invites the whole world to make disciples of all the inhabitants of the world. 

Today, that we talk so much about the unity of the nations for the common good, we forget that it was Christianity who started this unity, above all human differences, the one who impulsed the globalization  of God’s salvation. 

Therefore, under this divine mandate we are obliged to evangelize and turn into true missionaries in the world, no matter the race, color or tongue.  What is important is to show the real face of Jesus.   The Christians’ duties are very clear, to bring the gospel to other people no matter the color, race or tongue.   Baptism is the door to have an encounter with our Lord.  Thru baptism we begin the journey that Jesus has made thru the world’s path.

 In the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, the Church proposes this text where Jesus leaves us the promise to be with us always.  “I am with you always, until the end of the age” He is with us every single day, in good and bad times. It is a “ I leave but I stay”.

This text  specifically, must keep us alert and sure of what we are and of what we have, our Catholic Faith, nothing or no one can take us away from her or destroy it, because He is always with us.   He walks hand in hand with us, He makes us men and women that are sure of what we are, baptized and His children. 

This means that His presence among us should lessen our fears and doubts, because He walks ahead of us, hence, whenever we initiate a company or when we encounter challenges, we must be assure that He is with us every day of our lives until the end of time.  Because all we have is for Him, with Him and in Him, forever and ever,

 AMEN

 

FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

“ Im the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me”

(Jn.14,1-12)

Rev. Alexander Diaz

As time goes by, we enter deeper this wonderful time of Easter, today we are celebrating the Fifth Sunday of Easter.

This Sunday’s Gospel is a Gospel that recommend us to believe what Jesus does for the twelve. They feel in His words a great sadness, there is uncertainty in the teacher’s voice when He sees the human generation, that is represented by the Apostles, unable to believe and accept Him as Lord and Messiah.

Humanity has always questioned God and has turned against Him in spite of the multiple signs of love and in spite of His mercy shown thru His Son, Jesus Christ. The modern man and woman are day by day losing their faith and hope in God, not because God does not speak to them, but rather, very simply and straightforward, they have focused their attention on other concerns that do not allow them to believe, that makes them unhappy and lead them little by little to live a miserable and lonely life.

The Gospel of this Sunday reminds us that to have faith in the Father includes and realizes itself in our faith in Him. The encounter with the true God is possible only thru Jesus Christ: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn 14,6). All the paths in our sincere quest for our creator flows out to Christ.

To be a believer and to evangelize means to deepen the encounter of conversion with Jesus, to deeply know Him and to share the experience with others. To evangelize is not to indoctrinate or to commit oneself simply in social deeds; it is not even to give an intellectual speech about faith.

To evangelize is much more than that, it is to be a carrier, a bearer of a serious and profound friendship with the Lord. We have to try our best to get others to know Him with the same or deeper intensity.

Once someone asked Blessed John Paul II (Second), which was the most closer path to become a saint, the Blessed answered: the closer path to become a saint is to be a friend of Jesus, to establish a solid friendship without sense or notion, is simply to be an intimate friend in love and in the deep listening of this love. In our time, we have gotten used to receiving answers to the needs in our lives (i.e. food, clothes, etc).

They are satisfied and fulfilled with material things like money, machines, etc, instead of being fulfilled by people. It is true that all this comes to us thru the hands of other human beings, but none of these people become for us, the definite answer to all our interior needs.

We have made ours the famous phrase: “what you have is what you are worth” something that has no sense because material things do not develop or help you at all when you change it for the truth. In the context of the most profound needs of the human being is where Jesus’ affirmations are found. He is the path, and the truth and the life. It means this is the last explanation of the human life.

To find, to go in depth in the Lord is to build little by little the crossword puzzle of our lives. To put the pieces in their places so they will be completely visible. ¿How is it possible that those words pronounced by Jesus years ago, currently, at present, still make sense? ¿How Jesus keep on being today, after all these technical and industrial development, the answer to the human being?

The answers are very clear: Jesus’ words are addressed directly to the heart of each and every human being. It is the heart that must give the answer to the call. In spite of all the centuries, we, human beings, are not any different or unequal.

The history of humanity becomes present in our personal and specific history where we walk the same route. Also, on each one of us there is a prehistoric and a Middle Age, also a contemporary time that we have to learn how to conjugate in order to understand the role God plays in our lives.

Today text ends by reminding us that Jesus’ followers will do the works that He did and will do greater things than He did. The Lord describes to us the evolution process of faith.

Many people forget that faith has its process and an its evolution. We will not have a complete and total faith at the moment of our conversion.

Faith carves itself little by little, it is like a work of art where the authors are always two: God and you. In the extent we encounter the Teacher, we will become closer friends of Jesus and our faith will become more solid each day, because solid is our trust in Him.

AMEN!!

4TH SUNDAY OF EASTER

“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly”

John 10, 1-10

Rev. Alexader Diaz

We are celebrating the fourth Sunday of Easter; this Sunday we call it Shepherd Sunday. Today is designated as the World Day of Prayer for Vocations in the Catholic Church, it is specially set aside to pray that more men and women will hear and embrace the call to the priesthood and religious life; for the simple fact that the priest is the shepherd who feeds the spiritual flock entrusted to him.

In the Old and New Testament of the Sacred Scripture, we are compared to a sheep, in many cases we do not understand because we are not accustomed to seeing in it in our environment, in the Israelite culture was very common and many lived to be shepherds and devoted who lives to the care of these peaceful animals.

The image of the shepherd, so familiar to the people of God, is used by the Master to remind his people that He, who has conquered death, is the true guide of the Church. This suggestive image was used extensively in the Church of the early centuries, both in the preaching of the Fathers and as in the catechesis which was expressed through paintings.

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who knows His flock and gives his life for them; “that God has made both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:14a, 36), and guides the "misguided" and is “guardian of our souls” (1 Pt. 2: 25).

He is the best of the shepherds, for He gives life- and in fact gave it - for his sheep. And his sheep know him and hear his voice. He also tells us that He knows each of his sheep by name and the sheep recognize his voice (cf. Jn. 10, 1-10).

We are the Lord's sheep. It means we are also fragile, as these helpless animals, although many times we believe to be very strong and very capable. We are, therefore, dependent on the Lord and, like sheep, we are not self-sufficient.

However, when we are deceived, we can spend much of our time and even our entire life, trying to be independent of God, trying to stand on our own.

How often does this happen to us? And it also happens that we get tangled in our spiritual life. And who can untangle us? Who can get us out of the bush or fence where we are trapped? Well, we already know it: we need our Shepherd. He looks for us, rescues us, heals us, and places us on his shoulder, like a lost sheep, to bring us back the fold. Out of 100 sheep, he leaves 99 safe in the fold and goes to look for the lost one.

How many times has the Lord done this with us, with each one of us every time we escape from the fold or take the wrong path. (Luke 15, 4).

We cannot, either, walk alone, "like lost sheep", as St. Peter says in the Second Reading (1 Pt. 2, 20-25); we risk being devoured by wolves who are always on the lookout.

Therefore, we have to recognize we are dependent of the Lord as are the sheep of his shepherd. So, like them, we can be totally obedient to the Voice and the Will of our Shepherd, Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd.

There is a figure totally opposite to that of the emblematic figure of the Good Shepherd; the bad shepherd, who Jesus called a thief and robber. We must not obey them.

They are not entering through the door of the sheepfold, but jumping from one side of the fence and try to deceive us, pretending to be shepherds just to take away the sheep.

These false shepherds are all those false teachers who confuse us, since they speak to us trying to imitate our Shepherd, with false teachings that seem real to get us out of the fold, to get us out of the Church, to make us lose the faith our Shepherd teaches.

They are the things that we see on TV, Internet, movies and books, which seem true but are errors. They are all modern errors and heresies contained -for example, that mass of lies that is the New Age.

The preachers of these errors is to whom Jesus refers to in today’s Gospel; who do not come through the door of the sheepfold, but instead jump on the other side: "A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;… My sheep recognize my voice... they do not recognize the voice of strangers". Beware of strange voices! Beware of not confusing them with the Voice of the Good Shepherd! They seem alike ... but are not.

THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

“Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”

Jn. 24,13-35

Rev. Alexander Díaz

When confusion settles in the heart of the human being it is very difficult to recognize the presence of the Resurrected, because frustration and doubt fill the heart. This is what happens in the hearts of these two pilgrims, that frustrated were returning to Emmaus, to start their lives over again, they knew Jesus but never understood His principal mission.

They were walking fast with tears in their eyes, with lamentations, reproaches and resentments. Their words indicated their frustrations and resentments; this caused them to be blind and not be able to see clearly what the other pilgrim was telling them. This case of Emmaus, is the case of millions of Christians now-a-day, they live their own lives, with a Jesus of miracles, leader of the multitudes.

With a Jesus formed on their own way, but that is not real. They live, believing and thinking that the cross has no meaning, it is only an element of condemnation.

The Gospel explains to us that they were sad, that was the reason why when Jesus approached them, they were blind and could not recognize Him, because their disappointment has taken away their will to continue. In the tomb, they buried their hopes to be free and to overcome.

They left all their dreams inside the desolate cave. Many had told them that He was alive and resurrected, but they did not believe and by the look in their faces, they were not open to believe it. They were defeated and sadden, they were blind to themselves, they did not know how to digest their failure.

They tell Jesus. They tell Jesus their version of what had happened, but they do this with despair. They had waited, but their waiting had been useless. Now they return more disappointed than ever. Jesus’ words comfort them, but His death; the silence of the Teacher leaves them empty. Jesus begins to explain to them again, everything that was said about Him in the Scriptures. They listened but were not convinced.

They keep on walking. They arrive at the town and Jesus made believe He was going to continue ahead, but they invite Him to stay. They sit at table and again Jesus picks up the bread, giving thanks to God, He broke it and gave it to them. Scriptures says that at that moment their eyes were opened and they recognized Jesus, but He disappeared. The last gesture Jesus had for His Apostles was a Supper.

Now, after His resurrection, He does the same gesture again in the fraction of the bread, that nourishes, that saves and opens the eyes of the blind. The Eucharist is the place of encounter with Jesus. He comes to them, giving Himself again, in a different way. He breaks for them, shares with them the bread and blesses God.

They discover Him, at the precise moment. How beautiful it would be if we, as Christians, as they did, could also discover Him in the breaking of the bread and that our eyes will open at the precise moment of this miracle.

The Christian life will always be linked, connected to the Eucharist, Cross and Resurrection. Over and over again in the life of the followers of Christ, these three moments will be present. There is a question that our non-believer friends ask: If Jesus resurrected, ¿Where is He now? Jesus is not in the tomb.

The tomb is empty. Neither is the resurrection a return to the past. The real encounter with Christ is now in the Word, in the Eucharist and in the profession of Faith. The Lord is in the new life that have come in the transformation of the suffering of this world. To find it, is to find the path to salvation. Jesus Resurrected is in the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the special place for the presence of Christ.

To participate in the Eucharist means to have a personal encounter with Christ Resurrected. The Resurrected is also present where people feel united, together, where the same feeling is shared.

The Resurrected is among the most weak and poor of society, those that are most vulnerable to lose. Jesus, by overcoming death, allows them to regain their strength to continue life’s path, with hope and happiness in their hearts. To see, most of all see, that He is always by our side in all the moments of the journey thru our existence.

Do not lose hope. When you feel lonely and beaten; do not lose courage when you feel defeated, because Jesus will always be walking beside you as a pilgrim, recognize Him when your heart starts burning and when it feels comforted, it is Him, it could be no one else. He is alive and walks with us, Amen!

SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed”

Jn. 20, 19-31

Rev. Alexander Diaz

We are celebrating the Second Sunday of Easter, called “Divine Mercy Sunday”, because it shows the mercy of the Resurrected to one of his apostles that proudly does not believe, just because he has not seeing with his own eyes this miracle. Every single year we read the same reading, precisely because it gets us closer to the mystery of this Sunday.

First it reinforces that Sunday comes from the Lord. The first Easter Sunday is the day of the manifestation of the Resurrected, first to the women, later to the disciples. The first concern the Lord had, was to reunite the disciples after the scandal of the cross. The second Sunday, the first of the week, and this is, today, the Resurrected returns to reunite the disciples to confirm them on their faith.

To confirmed them on their faith was not an easy task, since in order to digest the scandal of the cross, was not simple, neither was it acceptable because of the consequences it entailed, the fear was eminent. The Gospel tells us that “when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews” (Jn. 20,19). Fear is one of the mechanisms that evil uses to bind us and not allow us to grow and be fruitful as true, real Christians.

Jesus came and stood in their midst, and with very simple words, words that will forever mark the lives of all Christians; “Peace be with you” (Jn. 20,19). Peace is the first message of the Resurrected to the eleven, an element that will allow men to transcend and find himself. This is why a Christian that is not a bearer, carrier, an announcer of peace, have not understood Jesus’ project. The Apostles were full of resentment and hate against those who crucified our Lord Jesus to the cross.

Blessed John Paul II (second) told us, the Christians of the third millennium many time, “The Christians, in particular, are called to be guards of peace, in the places where they live and work, in other words, we are asked to watch out so the consciences do not give in to the temptation of selfishness, deceit, lies and violence.

Let us, together, ask God, who is rich in mercy and pardon, to subdue the sentiments of hate in the moods of the populations, to cease the horror of terrorism and lead the steps of the people responsible of the nations thru the path of mutual understanding, solidarity and reconciliation”. Only when the human being is able to find peace within himself, then he will understand what is the real significance of his vocation.

One of the fruits of fear and being afraid, is frustration and rejection, skepticism and unbelief when confronted with new events, this is what happened to Thomas. He was not in the second day of the week when this happened, for this reason he becomes arrogant when faced with the resurrection. Thomas does not believe in God’s great things easily. Thomas is today’s world that asks for proofs and certainties. The world asks for such huge proof, that only God can give it to them thru His Resurrection. We asks God for signs and proofs when in reality, we are a mystery to ourselves and even to others.

Only for God we are not a mystery. God knows what resides in our hearts and knows how to give the correct answer at the right time. God knows of our deaths and resurrections, He knows of our cowardice, greatness and miseries. He knows the mud we are made of. To live as a Christian is to tune in our life to the rhythm of God, only then will life give us answers. To put your fingers in the wounds of Jesus is to enter His interior, to discover His pains and surrender for us. ¿Don’t we live a weak faith, which many times, does not transform us? To go into Jesus interior is to feel like Him.

Our life is full of sins and mistakes that multiply as we get farther and farther from God. It is not estrange then, that in the text of Jesus’ appearance, the reference to the Holy Spirit appears and also the forgiveness of sins. To accept the Holy Spirit is to accept the presence of God in our lives. When a person is with God and in God, sin plays a very small part in his existence.

Thomas asked for vital proof. He needed to see, touch, feel the tangible presence of the supposedly Resurrected. To evangelize is nothing else than to offer others this sensible experience of Jesus. To believe is to see, to touch, to feel Christ.

The crisis of the apostle was more of faith than of reasoning. When we follow the path to the Resurrected, the doubts become less and less each time. Some people suffer internally because their doubts would not allow them to believe in no one, not even in themselves. ¿What does a person without faith needs to feel the presence of the Resurrected? It gives me the impression that he must start at the beginning, go over and over again from Bethlehem to the Cross and the Resurrection Sunday with amazement and respect.

When we put our fingers in the wounds of Christ, it does not causes pain, but Love. Love that changes and converts the heart of anyone who gets close to Him.

Amen!