WHAT GOOD DID IT DO?
Acts 4:32-35; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31
One Sunday, a butcher decided to hear a noted preacher. When he returned, his wife questioned him about the service: “What hymns did they sing?” The butcher couldn’t remember. “What was his text?” He couldn’t remember! Exasperated, his wife asked: “What good did it do for you to go to church?”
The butcher was quiet for a moment. Then he said: “What good? I will tell you what good it did. You know the scales in the shop that weigh 900 grams to the kilo? Before we open for business tomorrow, I am going to correct those scales to weigh the correct 1000 grams to the kilo.”
Going to church did the butcher good. It transformed him. So it was with the disciples who encountered the risen Lord!
The gospel portrays Thomas’ radical transformation from one who doubted Jesus’ resurrection to the first one who courageously acknowledged Jesus as God!
The first reading describes the early Christian community. The disciples were transformed from people fearfully behind shut doors to people who testified to the resurrection with power; from people who fought for position and greatness to people who were of one heart and one soul… that’s the good that came from their encounter with the risen Lord (and the outpouring of the holy spirit).
It doesn’t matter if we cannot remember the hymns sung at the Eucharist or the readings (and the homily!). If our lives are radically transformed by our encounter with Jesus, that’s a load of “good”.
May our encounter with the risen Lord transform you and me.
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