Acts 4:32-35; Ps 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 Jn 5:1-6; Jn 20:19-31 The Scripture readings for the Sundays between Easter and Pentecost portray the impact of the resurrection of Jesus. Today’s selection from the Gospel of John recounts a two-fold appearance of the Risen Jesus to his disciples. When Jesus appears to them for the first time he brings a greeting of peace and remarkably “showed them his hands and his side.” They are overwhelmed with joy and Jesus breathes on them the power of the Holy Spirit that will drive away their fear and prepare them for their mission. The sequence takes place a week later. We learn that Thomas, called Didymus or the “Twin,” was not present the first time, setting the stage for one of the most poignant scenes of the Gospel. Despite the testimony of his fellow apostles, Thomas is skeptical. His demand for proof brings attention back to the wounds of Jesus: “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” The following Sunday Jesus appears again and offers “doubting” Thomas the proof he sought: “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side.” Thomas’ doubts crumble and he worships Jesus with the most explicit confession of his divinity in all the New Testament: “My Lord and my God.” What is going on here? A similar invitation to touch the Risen Jesus’ wounded hands and feet occurs in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 24:40). It is not simply a matter of assuring his disciples it was truly Jesus and not a ghost. That was the case with the Risen Jesus eating some broiled fish in the upper room, breaking bread with the disciples on the way to Emmaus and cooking breakfast on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Here the focus is on the wounds — wounds that were not the result of an accident but the consequence of crucifixion. Those wounds, earned at the cost of his life, were the unimpeachable signs of Jesus’ love for his disciples. He had laid down his life for them — and for us. My mother used to say — half kidding — that she had earned every gray hair on her head because of us kids. More seriously, we honor those who have suffered wounds or given their lives for a noble cause — our veterans, our first-responders. We are grateful for those who have earned a Purple Heart. Paul the Apostle referred to the welts on his back from the beatings he endured during his missionary travels as “the brand marks of Christ” (Gal 6:17). Some wounds reveal the quality of our love. That is the point here. The Risen Jesus who appears to his disciples is not some ethereal specter. The Crucified Jesus and the Risen Jesus are the same being. Likewise, the disciples who are invited to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, are asked to follow not some abstraction or sentimental ideal. We must be willing to be wounded, as he was. Ready to pour out our lives in forgiving love for others. Ready to earn our gray hairs and our “purple hearts” in following the way of Jesus, the Jesus who still bears his wounds. The first reading today is taken from the Acts of the Apostles and is one of the famous descriptions that Luke gives of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem. The disciples of Jesus who encountered the Risen Christ and his wounds had not forgotten the example of Jesus: they were of “one heart and mind;” “there was no needy person among them;” the community’s proceeds “were distributed to each according to need.” These early disciples were striving to live lives that bore the marks of the Crucified and Risen Christ. [Today is also called “Divine Mercy” Sunday, a feast established by St. John Paul II and inspired by a vision of Christ’s overwhelming mercy attributed to St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish mystic.]