Thank you Sunday”: Be Compassionate as the Heavenly Father is Compassionate
Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31
A story was told of a man who died and went to Hell. While in Hell, he decided to review his life on earth to ascertain that he really deserved to be in Hell. In his retrospections, he consoled himself for being in Hell because he began to enumerate his sins to himself and his conclusion was that Hell was where he belonged, on account of his wrong doings on earth. However, he lifted up his gaze, and to his utmost surprise, he saw his pastor/parish priest in Hell. In his amazement he yelled out, “Father, are you also here in Hell?” And Father motioned to him to keep quiet while pointing ahead of him saying, “look, the bishop is over there”!
From our story, there will be surprises as to who is in Hell on the last day. Perhaps the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday reminds us of our need of God’s compassion, but more importantly the necessity to imitate God’s compassion. If one point ties together our three readings of this Sunday, it is this – God is compassionate and love. It is impossible to separate God’s compassion from his love or his love from his compassion. It suffices to recall the saga of Christ’s lifeh and the Resurrection we celebrate.
Prior to the declaration of Luke, in our first reading, that the “believers were of one heart and mind,” he narrated the persecutions of the apostles, their resolve to continue to preach the good news despite persecutions, and the Holy Spirit descended upon them again while they prayed for strength (Acts 4:1-31). The idea of being “of one heart and mind” explains the dividends of the death and resurrection of Jesus. A new community and humanity dawned with the resurrection of Christ. Christ created a new community of believers by his resurrection, a spectacular event to which his contemporaries had no explanation for. The power of the resurrection led the nascent church to embrace voluntary poverty, to sell their possessions and to share the profit thereof to cater for the needs of others. The power of the resurrection raised up Christianity, a community ready to show compassion to the poor and needy of the society because they themselves had enjoyed the compassion of God through the death and resurrection of Christ.
Today, Second Sunday of Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday, is “Thank you Sunday”. “Thank you” only comes from lips attached to a grateful heart, from those who have come to the realization that something good has been done for them. Children are normally taught to say “thank you” for favors received, for kind words spoken to them, and for love extended to them. Adults and nations acknowledge the need for solidarity and help from other adults and nations, and those teach them to say “thank you”. Self-sufficiency and air of arrogance have no room for “thank you,” exploitation and denigration substitute for gratitude when the heart is already poisoned. Today, we all need to say “thank you” to God!
“Thank you” comes in two ways, either via the vocal cords or through reciprocity of kindness. The easier of the two is to activate the vocal cords and say “thank you,” the harder of the two is to show an act of gratitude, to do something as a consequence of favor received.
Today, which we have tagged “Thank you Sunday,” our readings display an act of “thank you” to God, and not just speak out the words. Since Jesus died and rose for sin, that (sin) handicap that turns humanity into ingrates, blurs the human sight from seeing and acknowledging favors received, our readings show us how creatively early Christians were in their approach to showing gratitude beyond words to action. According to our first reading, “There was no needy person among them” (Acts 4:34). The eradication of poverty was the early Christians’ “thank you” and token of gratitude to God for the favor received through the death and resurrection of Christ.
The statement of our first reading, “There was no needy person among them” (Acts 4:34), takes our hearts back to the beginnings of life in the promised-land. It was the command of God to the Israelites to make sure that “there is no needy person among you” (Deut 15:4). The Old Testament’s attempt to eradicate needless poverty was imitated by early Christians. For Israel, the mandate to take care of the needy was premised on the fact that Israelites were slaves in Egypt and God had compassion on them by liberating them from slavery (Deut 15:15). It follows, according to God, that Israel must take care of the needy persons in its midsts. What more, the Greek word used ἐνδεής in our first reading goes beyond poverty to embrace all that the human person needs in order to profit from God’s magnanimity and compassion.
“Thank you Sunday” comes as an opportunity and a reminder to Christians that there is always something to be done to make the quality of life better for fellow human beings. It goes beyond the compassion of God enjoyed by Christians to a call to Christians to be compassionate as their Heavenly Father is compassionate. “Thank you Sunday” is a stock taking day, a call for new initiatives from Christians to perpetuate goodness upon the planet earth both structurally and spiritually. If our first reading narrates Christian communitarianism as a strategy to overcome material poverty, what are we doing today to obliterate spiritual poverty? How do we, as Church, consolidate on the elimination of material poverty in order to feed the hungry masses that liter our streets and church premises?
Our gospel continues this optic on the necessity to eradicate every form of poverty of the Christian community by Jesus’ statement to his disciples – “peace be with you.” “Shalom” (peace) means wholeness, not just absence of war or discomfort. “Shalom” is not just the desire to topple Boko Haram, and the strategies to overthrow Buhari’s government. “Shalom” includes putting structures in place to prevent the evolution of all kinds of monstrosities that plague our societies today. In the case of the disciples of Jesus, the fear of the Jews, the uncertain future they faced, and the disillusionment that befell them after the arrest and execution of Jesus were needs that demanded to be redressed and addressed by Jesus. The greetings of Jesus “peace be with you” is the first step towards an overhaul, fundamentally, the substitution of fear with courage and boldness. As an American President once suggested, we need to eliminate the fear of fear itself. According to Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, “There’s nothing to fear, except fear itself.”
“Thank you Sunday” is the sowing of the seeds of fearlessness and the demonstration of courage and stubborn determination to transform our polity. When we take seriously the two criteria for recognizing Jesus Christ, according to our second reading, then we must realize that Christianity is a religion of martyrs. We must admit with Tertullian that the blood of martyrs is the seed of the faith. We must brace up for martyrdom ourselves, should we want to be authentic Christians. The statement, “This is the one who came through water and blood, Jesus Christ, not by water alone, but by water and blood,” from our second reading, calls us to fan into flame the power of the Holy Spirit we received at our water baptism so that we can testify with our blood to our faith in Christ.
“Thank you Sunday” is the promotion of “confessors,” those whose lifestyles have led them to imprisonment, lost of lucrative jobs, denial of fundamental rights, and defamation. It is a Sunday in which we celebrate the heroes and heroines of Christianity, the living prophets who still attend our churches, those whose lives challenge the inauthenticity in ours. Individuals like little Leah Sharibu, the incarcerated Nigerian girl who refused to deny her Christian faith before Boko Haram’s threat to her life. Indeed, there are myriads ways of saying “Thank you” on a “thank you Sunday,” the highest of which is the authenticity of our Christian life.
Thomas teaches us what authentic Christianity is, it is the confession – “My Lord and my God!” It is the realization of the divinity of Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection. In fact, the holes made by the nails and the lance on the body of Christ must be transferred to our bodies, not just our sins renewing the pain of Jesus’ wounds. The confession of Jesus Christ must be those wounds on our bodies that we can show to the world, wounds we bear because of our confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Imagine how painful it is to renew a scar, but that is what happened when Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Each time your faith and mine are tried, when the scars of faith threatens to bleed again, it is time to say, “thank you Lord,” for through his wounds we’ve been healed; and through our own wounds, others will be healed!
Assignment for the Week :
How do you choose to celebrate “Thank you Sunday” creatively?
Taken from April 7, 2018.