WelCom April 2024
An Easter reflection
Fr James Lyons
In the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the doors were closed in the room where the disciples were… Jesus came and stood among them… Eight days later, the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them.’ [See John 20:19-31]
This scripture passage is read on the second Sunday of Easter, also known as Divine Mercy Sunday. The Risen Jesus confirms the faith of the disciples with the gift of the Holy Spirit and the commission, As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.
For me, the significance is in the number eight.
With the first day of the week being Sunday, the eighth day is the following Sunday. But, it can be understood as an extra, an add-on, or – we might also recognise it as an ‘out-of-time’ day, signalling a new beginning.
The disciples were certainly at the beginning of something entirely new. The resurrection of Jesus had brought them to face the reality of who Jesus was. His claim to be from God was suddenly obvious and their failure to stand with him at Calvary was their great shame.
But Jesus comes among them on this eighth day with no reprimand, only peace – and a gift that would change their cowardice to bravery and their guilt to strong, faithful witnesses, even to death.
They had already heard Jesus announce his ‘new commandment’ to love as he had loved them, and ‘loving one another’ would now become their identity badge. With the gift of the Holy Spirit transforming their lives they were ready for mission. A new age was set in motion.
In the light of this, I like to think of the Eighth Day as something totally unexpected, completely out of the ordinary.
Following the death of Jesus, his disciples had survived a time of intense disappointment and self-blame, only to then find themselves coping with reports that Jesus was alive. They were lost, confused, very much out of their depth.
We are sent, as Jesus himself was sent, to bring light into life’s dark places, to encourage, to forgive and to love.
Peter even decided to go back to his fishing and the others joined him [John 21:3].
Out of this state of near despair, their faith crumbling, a light dawned, opening a new day unlike anything they had ever known – the Eighth Day!
This ‘Day’ ushered the disciples into a new way of seeing and a new way of being. As the followers of Jesus formed themselves into a faith community, the witness of their lives became known as The Way. Filled with the Holy Spirit they suddenly knew Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life.
The Eighth Day turned doubt into unshakeable hope.
This is the Easter promise for all who follow Jesus, no matter the time or season. We are sent, as Jesus himself was sent, to bring light into life’s dark places, to encourage, to forgive and to love.
We are people of the Eighth Day, a day filled with the wonder of newness and immense joy. It is the day outside the concerns of every ordinary seven-day week; a day when Jesus opens minds and hearts, stands with us and invites us to follow him. Who would not enter this day and cling to its promise?