Today’s readings tell us a story of how our Lord Jesus disciples grew in maturity. When they first met the Lord Jesus they were men caught up with their lives. They heard the Lord’s call, left everything to follow Him and listen to His teachings. However, even though they spent 3 years with the Lord, listening to Him preach, watching Him heal the sick and drive out demons, their hearts were not changed.

When the Lord Jesus died on Mount Calvary, they had nothing to hold on to and turned back to their old lives. Today’s Gospel reading takes us to the first encounter the disciples had with the Risen Lord. When the Lord Jesus died on Mount Calvary the disciples lost hope and were living in fear. They were hiding away from the rest of the world afraid that they too would be crucified if captured by the people who put their Master to death. The Risen Lord comes into this locked room and surprises His disciples. While they would have been overjoyed to see Him once again, they were also afraid as to what the future held for them. It is to this fear that the Lord speaks to them and says “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). The Lord was giving them a mis- sion. This was to be their mission for the rest of their lives. To take on the job the Lord was giving them the fuel they needed was the Holy Spirit. The Lord had this encounter with all the disciples except for St.
Thomas.

When St. Thomas heard of this encounter, he did not believe it. And rightly so. A person rising from the dead was not something that happened every day. St. Thomas would have been a pragmatic person. He thought he knew better than to believe a tall tale about a resurrection without evidence to prove it. The Lord Jesus knew His heart and appeared to the disciples a second time; this time with St. Thomas present. The Lord knew the doubts in St. Thomas’ mind and spoke directly to them when He asked St. Thomas to touch his hands and side. He wanted to give St. Thomas tangible evidence that this resurrection was real. That the Risen Lord Jesus was real. For years to come, St. Thomas would have carried this experience in His heart and remembered it each time He preached the Good News to people. This was the moment everything in His life changed. Let us take a minute and remember the moment the Lord Jesus changed our lives. The day we realized the Lord was calling us to a journey and a lifetime with Him. Today, the Lord is calling us to remember the moment we encountered Him and when everything changed. Just as it did for St. Thomas.

Though the disciples were called by the Lord to take the Good News to ends of the earth, they would not have been able to do it in that state of weakness. They needed to be moulded by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the same way, the Lord needs to mould us into a person who can fulfil His mission. To do this we can build our faith by reading the Word of God. Verse 31 says, “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” We receive faith and the life of the Lord Jesus by reading His Word.

The Second Reading explains how the disciples were transformed from the men in the upper room into saints of God. It is through believing that Jesus, the Son of God, overcame the world that we too can overcome the world. When we know our Master and Lord overcame whatever the world threw at Him, we can hold on to Him and come out victorious as well. This is the change that took place in the lives of the disciples. Before, they thought they had to face the world by their own strength. But once they met the Risen Lord, they realized they did not need to do anything by their own strength. But by believing in the Lord Jesus, they could live by His power and strength. It is this power of God that transformed them.

The first reading shows us the kind of people the disciples became after meeting the Risen Lord. Now they were not hiding in the up- per room or doubting the resurrection. Instead, they grew in their spiritual maturity, preached the Gospel and inspired others to do the same. They gave their experience of the Risen Lord to others. Their lives had taken a 180-degree turn. Instead of trying to protect themselves and meet their own needs, they left everything in the hands of God. All they wanted to do was the will of God and in turn the Lord took care of them. Acts 4:33-34 says, “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.” They all lived by God’s providence. Today the Lord is calling us to a deeper journey with Him. We need to mature through a relationship with the Lord. Day by day as we sit in His presence we will be changed. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Psalm 118:22 says, “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

When we make the Lord the cornerstone of our lives He will change us into great saints of God just as He changed the disciples.

Prayer: Abba Father, I want to go to the deeper places, to know the dreams of Your heart. I want to find all the secret places, hidden places Lord. I want to be completely Yours. Amen.