Second Sunday of Easter

April 27, 2025

John 20: 19-31

In today’s reading from Acts of the Apostles, we are told that many signs and wonders were done at the hands of the apostles. In the Gospel today hands are a very important image of faith. What is it about hands? I remember a lady that I have known who was fascinated by hands. 

One of the first things she noticed about people was their hands. This came from taking art in college and having to draw people’s hands. When you think about it, they can tell a lot about a person. Are they strong hands; are they delicate hands; do they show talent in music, art, cooking: are they laboring hands or skilled hands? Whatever hands tell us by looking at them or what they can do, hands are essential for most people in both the ordinary things of daily living and in work or art.

In today’s gospel, Jesus’ hands tell the apostles one very important thing: Those hands are Jesus’ hands. They look like the hands that have comforted many; hands that have cured many people; hands that have been used in many miracles, like making wine out of water, or making a small amount of bread feed many; hands that have handed around bread that has become Jesus’ body; hands that have carried crosses, hand that have been crucified to the point of death. That is especially what those hands told Thomas who doubted: that they were the crucified hands living again. For Thomas, Jesus’ risen hands brought him to unshakable faith. But Jesus tells us that “Blessed are those who have not seem, but have believed.”

Those people are us. We may have the testimony of others, but our belief is not based on seeing those hands ourselves. At least, not as Thomas saw them. We see those hands in the hands of others, and occasionally our hands. Jesus knows us by our hands. As St. Theresa of Avila said, “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours; yours are the eyes through which he looks with compassion on the world...and yours are the hands with which he blesses the world.”

We may not escape the doubts of Thomas. But, how will Jesus know me by my hands? Am I using them to serve others, to care for the wounded, to address the needs of the poor and suffering? Am I willing to use my hands to take up the work of Jesus in my world? What tale will my hands tell me? How can they serve better the Jesus of my faith?

In reflecting on today’s gospel, I am remind of an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and said, “What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?” Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, “Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life.” The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, “I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me.” They told her, “You’ve certainly come to the wrong place,” and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them. The woman said to herself, “Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?” She stayed to comfort them, then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hovels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. She became so involved in ministering to other people’s grief that ultimately, she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sorrow out of her life. 

You see, if we becoming so involved in being the Lord’s hands, feet. Eyes, and voice, we are no longer engrossed in our own needs, but in the needs of the Christ we see in all people that we meet and actually see. He is risen, and he is us if we accept him. My hands will tell the story of who I am.

Fr. John Tran