Scripture Study for

One of the best-known descriptions of the early Christian community states  some of its most highly prized values. The picture sketched is probably more  spiritually idealized than it is historically accurate. The principal values are unity  in mind and heart, the sharing of possessions, and apostolic witness. Unity of mind  and heart characterizes the Greek concept of friendship; sharing possessions is a  Jewish value. Thus communal harmony espouses values from both cultures. The  ideals of this community are noble. They hold out a way of life that might appear  to be an ideal, yet through the grace of the Resurrection is attainable. 

The reading from the Letter of John is a testimony to Trinitarian faith. It  describes God as the One who begets (the Father); it identifies Jesus as the Son  of God; and it credits the Spirit as the one who testifies to the triumph of Jesus’  death and resurrection. It also sketches the way believers participate in this  Trinitarian reality. The reading moves from faith and love to obedience. Jesus  alone shares in God’s own nature, and thereby can refashion women and men  into children of God. It is through faith in him that believers can conquer the evils  that threaten them. 

Two Resurrection appearances form a kind of diptych. Thomas is the hinge  that connects them. Absent for the first event, he is the central character of the  second. Thomas is less a doubter than the representative of Christians like us,  who are called to believe on the testimony of others. The faith required of him is,  in a way, more demanding than that required of those who actually encountered  the risen Lord. We may judge him harshly, but Jesus does not. Instead, he invites  Thomas to touch him, an invitation not extended earlier to the other disciples.  Thomas then declares that the risen Lord is God, a profession of faith that out strips that of the others.