April 14 Sunday in White. Jn 20/19-31

Background.

The resurrection stories in the Gospels, especially St John's are stories of loving reunion and communion. The one who had seemingly gone away now comes back and fills his friends and followers with hope and love. We must not try to find consistency in the stories. The various Gospel writers were not trying to write a script for a tv docudrama. Rather they were trying to tell their readers what it "felt" like to have the risen Jesus back with them. They set their stories in the time and the places and the circumstances which best fitted their individual concerns. But above all they wanted to describe the wonder, the surprise, the uncertainty, the excitement, the astonishing hope that filled their being when Jesus whom they thought they had lost was suddenly present among them again. In the incident today, St. John is writing for his own community, almost three quarters of a century later. Some of its members doubtless complained that it would be much easier to believe in Jesus if they had lived at his time. Jesus tells them that belief goes deeper than just touching his risen body.

Story.

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Nora who refused to believe that people she saw on television were real people. She knew that the characters on the soaps and the sitcoms and the police stories were only make-believe. So she decided that everyone else was make-believe too. None of the political leaders or athletic stars or news commentators on television actually existed. There was no Peter Jennings or Mike Wallace or Tom Brokaw or Brian Gumbel or President Clinton or Michael Jordan. Her parents told her that they really existed. But she said, "prove it!" Can you imagine trying to prove that there really is a Bill Clinton or a Bob Dole or a Ross Perot to someone who denies that they exist? Her parents argued with Nora. There are some things we just have to take on faith, they said. You have to believe them because you trust the people that tell you. You can live in this world without some trust. Prove it said Nora. Well, finally, the little girl became famous because she was such a skeptic. Reporters came to interview her. Don't you believe in us? They asked her. Sure, Nora said, because you're here and I can see you and touch you. But I still don't believe in Bryant Gumbel. The one she didn't believe in most was Michael Jordan. Everyone said that he was "incredible" so Nora thought they were agreeing with her. Finally one day a big black car pulled up to her house and a big man with a diamond earing got out of the car and walked up to her house bouncing a basketball. We don't own a chevy bazer, she told him. He laughed, picked her up, spun her around in the air, then put her back on the ground, gave her the basketball and walked back to his car. Well, she said, I guess there really is a Michael Jordan, but I still don' believe in Bill Clinton.