Coffee with Sister Vassa -- WHY ARE THE RISEN LORD’S WOUNDS FAITH-AFFIRMING?

This week, throughout which the hymns of Thomas Sunday continue to be chanted in church-services, let’s think about why it is specifically the woundsof the risen Lord that convince Thomas that his Lord and his God is. Thomas had been traumatized, as had been the other Apostles, by the triumph of injustice over Jesus, Who was publicly humiliated, crucified, dead and buried. Jesus, Who was innocent of the charges brought against Him, Who had only done good for others, was executed like a criminal, and those who had committed this crime got away with it. How could God, if He is God, if He is at all, have let this happen?

This question, I mean, the question arising from the senseless, entirely-unjust violence suffered by innocent people, is the one that most often makes it hard to believe in God. Hence the disbelief of Thomas. But here’s why the wounds of the risen Lord renew the Apostle’s faith: The Lord, even after His resurrection, continues to carry the wounds inflicted on Him, on His risen Body. The Body of Christ carries the evidenceof the crimes committed. The evidence, my friends, is not erased, not forgotten by God, not swept under the rug, no. The wounds of all those who suffer at the hands of unjust and mindless violence are carried henceforth on the Body of Christ, no longer harmed by the wounds, but testifying to all the injustice that will, in the end, in God’s time, be judged by Him.

Of course, these wounds are an open invitation to repent, for those who have been inflicting such wounds on the Body of Christ; on human beings in this world that God so loved, that He sent His only-begotten Son into it and into all its madness. These wounds are also enabling us, in communion with Him, to be partakers of the risen-yet-wounded, new Life in Him. We are empowered to carry also the wounds, without being harmed or deadened by them. As we continue to witness, in our unjust world, a lot of injustice that seems to hold power, that seems to be triumphing, at times, we are also given to know and to trust that God’s only-begotten Son holds on to the evidence of the crimes, carrying the wounds on His precious Body. Lord, help us co-carry the wounds, by Your grace, in faith and patience and wisdom and love. Our Lord and our God, glory be to You.

Coffee with Sister Vassa: The Power of our Wounds

 

THE POWER OF OUR WOUNDS 

Why does the risen Lord still have His wounds, which Thomas is able to see and touch, so he believes it is none other than Christ, his King and his God? Because He wants still to have His wounds, as one of us, who also have our wounds. He shows us how to be wounded and yet free; and yet even joyous, and empowered to testify to others, also wounded, how to walk forward and to testify to the power of God in our lives. We don’t have to be perfect, either physically or otherwise, to be vessels of God’s unifying light, hope and all-forgiving love, in our world.

But oftentimes we might be ashamed of our wounds, or bitter about them, or resentful of others or ourselves, who inflicted the wounds. But our new life in Christ is not erasing our wounds, sometimes visible and sometimes invisible ones. Whether we have gone through a painful divorce, or lost our jobs or our homes, or were slandered or somehow betrayed by a loved one, or we ourselves have betrayed our loved ones, or have struggled with an addiction, or struggle with some other disease, - when we allow ourselves to follow our risen-and-still-wounded Lord, and embrace the new life and new hope with which He wants to embrace us, His imperfect and wounded followers, we find a new Way to move forward. And to return into communion with Him and others, if our wounds have been leading us to self-isolation, resentment or self-centered fear.

I was also thinking, on this Thomas Sunday, about the fact that Thomas and most of the other disciples abandoned our Lord, when His wounds were being inflicted on Him. And then they didn’t believe the women, that He is risen, although He told them repeatedly that He would be killed but would rise again. Yet He re-enters into their midst, despite their closed doors, and says, Peace, Shalom. He does admonish them for a lack of faith, but no apologies are demanded or made, not even in Peter’s case. What He does is He eats with them, and communion is restored. Thank You, Lord, for challenging us to unity, even as we struggle with our wounds. Let us not be ashamed of them, but testify to them as did You, as we walk forward into Your new freedom and new happiness.