My Lord and my God!

At 5,12-16; Ps 117; Rev 1,9-11a .12-13.17-19; Jn 20,19-31
28 APRIL

Jesus had sent Mary of Magdala to bring to the Apostles the joyful announcement of his resurrection, with a message of very pure new faith: “Go to my brothers and say to them: “I am going up to my Father and your Father, my God and your God”. The Father of Jesus is now the Father of the Apostles and also the God of Jesus is their God. The Apostle Thomas adds to this new truth of faith a second one. Jesus is his Lord and his God: “My Lord and my God”. Jesus is confessed in his eternal essence. He is his God and his Lord for Thomas. The Father is God and is his Father. Jesus is God and is his Lord. The Father and the Son, God the Father and God the Son are one God. We already know from the Prologue that the relationship between the Father and the Word that is God in the beginning and before God, always turned towards Him, is of Sonship for eternal generation. The Prologue also reveals to us that the Word became flesh and came to dwell among us to give us grace and truth. Jesus reveals that his Father and his God is now the Father and the God of the Apostles. Thomas confesses that Jesus is his Lord and his God. Then, it becomes necessary to ask: what does the confession of Thomas imply for the faith? It says that only if Jesus is the God and the Lord of man, the Father of Jesus is the Father and the God of man. If Jesus is not the God and the Lord, never his Father and his God, who is the only one true God, of Heaven and earth, might be our God and Father. Thus, Jesus becomes the only way to go to the true God and to the true Father. But it is not just a human way. It is divine and human, because He is true God and true man, He is the incarnate, crucified, risen God, in whom the Father, God, dwells bodily with the power of his divinity.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. (Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Thomas, called Didymus, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Thomas answered and said to him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of (his) disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may (come to) believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.

The Father of Jesus will necessarily have to be the Father of every man and so also the God of Jesus necessarily be the God of every man. But Jesus too must be the Lord and the God of every man. The Father and the God of Jesus will be the Father and the God of every man if Jesus is the God and the Lord of every man. It is in this faith the salvation of man, because it is for this faith, in Christ, with Christ, for Christ, that the eternal life of the Father, which is the eternal life of Christ, will be the eternal life of man. Here then is the purpose for which Christ came: to give us the eternal life of the Father that is in him and that is given for faith in him. Coming to this faith is also the purpose for which John wrote his Gospel: “Jesus in the presence of his disciples, made many other signs that were not written in this book. But these were written so that you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and so that, believing, you have life in his name”. Now faith is perfect. If Christ is excluded from the relationship with the Father, man remains without eternal life. The Father has given eternal life only to his only Son. No one else has been constituted giver of his life by him. We believe in Christ, Messiah, Son of God, universal Mediator of grace and truth, we obtain eternal life in his name. It is eternal truth.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints do not allow humanity to be deprived of Christ Jesus.