Faith and Science

            I really don’t need scientific proof of the resurrection.  If I did, I would never find it.  The whole subject is completely a place where faith is the only proof.  You can doubt global warming, whether money is undermining our political system, or any number of other things that science has proved beyond doubt; but resurrection is one of those things that is only a subject of faith.  That is why our religious institutions continue to thrive around Easter when people need an answer to the question of continuing life.  We have all had losses that are sometimes overwhelming.  We need to know something else exists beyond what we know.  The story of Easter is that answer and we want it very much.

            The story of the gathering of the disciples in the house with locked doors on the day of the Resurrection is certainly understandable.  Jesus has been taken away and crucified by the powers extant in the community; the religious leaders and the Romans.  They fear that they are next.  While they are cowering in fear behind the doors, Jesus suddenly is with them.  He says Peace be with you, and shows them his hands and his side.  The disciples are overjoyed at his presence.  Jesus breathes on them and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you, he tells them.  He gives them the power to forgive sins. 

            When Thomas, who has been away, comes back, they tell him that they have seen the Lord.  Instead of believing, Thomas says: unless I put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand into his side, I will not believe!  A week later, Jesus comes back to them at the house, greets Thomas and invites him to put his fingers in the mark of the nails and his hand into his side. Thomas response is simply to say: My lord and my God!  I have no problem at all with Thomas’ doubt.  I suspect that I would have been very much like him.  Belief in something as radical as Jesus’ resurrection is a very difficult thing for any of us to believe.  We want some kind of scientific proof for something like this.  That is what Jesus offered Thomas, but when he saw Jesus before him, no other proof was needed. 

            That is what faith is all about.  It isn’t science and it isn’t proof.  It is firm belief in things that aren’t seen, and really aren’t possible to be seen.  Faith is a grounding in the power of God to do more for us than we can ask or imagine.  That is what Easter gives us with all of its power.  Beginning with those people locked in that house who saw Jesus stand before them; we have a cloud of witnesses through the ages who have continued to testify to the presence of the Risen Christ among us.  That is the statement of our creeds, of our liturgies and of our lives. Jesus’ final remark to Thomas was for you and me.  He said to him: Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe!