Sunday In the Octave Easter (John 20:19-31) “Unlock the Door”
Sunday In the Octave Easter (John 20:19-31) “Unlock the Door”
“The doors were locked.” Our Gospel account begins with those words this morning. Why were the doors bolted to the upper room Easter evening?
We could say that the doors were bolted because the apostles feared the Jewish authorities. More than likely, they were afraid of being arrested. The friends of Jesus didn’t want to admit their friendship with the Lord because it might lead to imprisonment, maybe even execution. For that reason, they cowered in the upper room waiting and wondering what would happen next.
We might speculate about other reasons the doors were secured. The disciples were apprehensive about the future. Surely, they were having doubts which caused them to lock things down. The apostles had heard stories of the empty tomb. Also, they had been told by Mary Magdalene, as well as others, about supernatural apparitions. If any of us have ever dealt with phenomena we can’t explain, we understand. We have all heard a mysterious noise in the dark or the cry of a voice in pain in our neighborhood. We can have a shiver go down our spine. We don’t care for such things.
We may slip into our bedroom locking the door behind us. We just want to feel safe. Maybe the doors in the upper room were locked to keep Jesus out. The disciples must have wondered if he would be mad because of their lack of loyalty in his hour of distress. The disciples needed an awakening if they were going to be fearless preachers of the Gospel. We all need that. We can say we believe, but there usually must be some event in our lives that makes our faith sincere. Many of us mouth the words of faith, but we have a hard time articulating why we really believe.
One of the favorite movies of the Easter season is called Ben Hur. Do we know the story behind the movie? As with most movies there was a book before the movie. The story was written by a man named Lew Wallace. Wallace lived in the 19th century. He was a real renaissance man. He was born in Indiana. He was a civil war general who was a key figure in many of the great battles of the war. In fact, he was the youngest Major General in the war. He later was a governor in the southwest and a United States Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Wallace was also a Christian, but as he admitted, not a very convicted believer. After the war he started writing more seriously. Once he was asked to write a religious piece for a magazine. He was dissatisfied with his article because he was not passionate about his faith. One day he was riding on a train and he happened to fall into conversation with Robert Ingersoll who was one of the most renowned religious skeptics of the day. Wallace challenged Ingersoll to defend his anti-religious stance. Ingersoll gave a well thought out argument for his agnostic beliefs. Wallace saw that Ingersoll knew more about the Bible and religion than he did. He felt embarrassed that he was not better versed.
Lew Wallace had been playing with the idea of writing a religious novel. After his encounter with Ingersoll, He began to write Ben Hur. He studied the Bible as well as the anthropology of the Middle East. He tried to look at faith through the eyes of Ben Hur his main character. In the end, he found the strong belief he desired. Ben Hur became the best-selling novel of the nineteenth century. The book has never been out of print. Ingersoll was later asked if he had talked to Wallace about Theology. He denied it. Perhaps he was horrified that the intellectual argument he had with Wallace didn’t destroy Wallace’s faith but caused him to believe. Lew Wallace admitted later that his faith evolved over time. He let God into his life. The door was cracked open. Jesus barged in.
We all probably are wrestling with our faith this Sunday. We live in fear. We have retreated to our houses because we are scared of sickness and death. We say we believe. We say we trust that God will help us make it through this difficult time. But are our words of belief just words?
On this Easter morning we have shut our doors to protect ourselves. Are we, praying, reflecting, contemplating? Why do we trust God? What can we point to that gives us confidence in the Lord? Are we resistant to even asking such questions? Maybe we need to unbolt the door to ask hard questions. Like Jacob the patriarch in the Old Testament maybe we need to have a wrestling match with God.
If we are willing to face our doubts fearlessly, there may be great grace. Someone once said that the wise person is the one who does not have all the answers but is the one who is willing to live with unanswered questions and still live faithfully.
Reflection Questions:
1. Do I think that doubts about God means that I do not have faith? What are some of those doubts? Am I at peace if there are no answers?
2. What painful memories do I keep locked away? Can I pray with Lord about my wounds this Easter day? Where does that lead me?
Dear Parishioners,
One of our religious traditions is the ringing of bells. Bells are rung for a variety of purposes. Bells are rung as a call to worship. They are also rung to drive away the devil. Perhaps the sound reminds Satan that people have faith despite his efforts to tempt us into despair.
A very important thing to do is to ring bells at the time of a death. In different places there are different patterns for doing this. In Irish villages the church bell was rung to tell people a parishioner had died. Three rings meant a man had died. Two rings meant a woman had died. After those rings the number of years of the persons life was rung out. Often this could identify a person in a small village before the news spread by word of mouth.
I first became attune to the religious significance of bells when I was in seminary. At the Benedictine monastery where our seminary was there was a lot of bell ringing. Bells rang every quarter hour. Bells rang several times a day to call people to worship. But the most significant time a bell rang was when a monk would die. There was a large bell specifically for that purpose. When it tolled, we counted the number of rings to see if we could figure out who had died. The tolling stopped us in our tracks. The death bell ringing was also a reminder of the fidelity of the monk to his vows.
Sacred Heart has a magnificent church bell. We ring it at funerals. I have decided we will ring it on Sundays after 9 a.m. Mass as long as we cannot worship together. We will toll it once for every thousand Americans who have died from the COVAD 19 virus (today sadly we rang it 39 times). I hope it will be a noise that will remind our neighborhood that Sacred Heart is still here praying for the good of all. I pray it is a respectful way to remember the dead. I hope it is a sign that evil will never prevail nor drive away the faith we have in the Resurrection.
May the Blessed Mother and all the angels and saints protect you today.
Fr. Mark