Easter 2

by Paul O'Reilly, SJ

"Doubt no longer, but believe."  [John 20.27]


Seeing is believing. Touching is knowing. There is a story told by an English 
journalist of Mother Teresa.  He went one day to interview her and caught 
her giving a talk to her novices. She was speaking about the Wounds of Christ. 
And - as apparently was her wont - she was going on rather a long time and 
speaking with great passion and conviction about the way in which Christ had 
entered, enlightened and transformed her life and the lives of many of the poor 
people she served.

But eventually, she came 
to an end and the novices all went off about their business. So the journalist

went up to ask her a question. "What do you mean by these 'wounds of Christ'?"  
Mother Teresa said: 'come with me' and she took him into her hospice. They went 
all round it. It was a long tour and they went through all the wards in the 
hospice. There was an enormous number of people, on beds, on mattresses, some 
just on the floor. Most were very old and very sick; some were clearly dying. 
All of them were being looked after - as best they could - by nuns and 
volunteers - all desperately busy and rushed off their feet. 
There were a lot of people confused and suffering and 
another lot of people trying - not always successfully - but doing their best to 
help. Eventually, they came to the end. Mother Teresa turned to him and said: 
"There, you have seen the wounds of Christ?"

And he said to her: "Well actually, No, I haven't"  She said 
to him: 'Oh yes, you have.'  And he said: "Well, no: I just saw some very 
sick people in pain and suffering and some other people ­ not all of them 
qualified - trying to help. There's nothing special in that."  And she 
looked at him very hard and said "If you have seen that, then you have seen the 
wounds of Christ."

Seeing is believing... and believing is seeing.  Christianity is the 
ability to see the light of Christ active in the world and to recognize it for 
what it is - the action and the goodness of God - even when it is present in 
ordinary people doing ordinary things. Like Jesus, we live in cynical times. We 
often feel surrounded by people who question our motives; our belief in God; - 
even our sanity. The world often challenges us to provide proof ­ 
supposedly scientific proof - of why we believe 
- proof of the existence of the God we worship - proof of the Truth of the 
Gospel we proclaim. And the proof that we have to offer can easily be dismissed 
as 'nothing special'. And we ourselves can easily dismiss the action of God in 
our own lives as 'nothing special'. 

In calling ourselves Christians we are undertaking the responsibility to be the 
wounds of Christ in the World. As St Thomas and Mother Theresa know: once you 
have seen and touched the wounds of Christ, your life can never be quite the 
same again.

Let us stand and profess our Faith in God who suffered for the World.

Mount Street Jesuit Centre,

114 Mount Street,

London SW1K 3AH.

ENGLAND.

fatbaldnproud@yahoo.co.uk