Scripture Study for

Second Sunday of Easter

Understanding the Word

By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.

Our glimpse of the Christian community in today’s first reading is an idealized picture, a kind of utopian dream. It depicts the primitive church more in its eschatological fulfillment than as it probably really was. Four characteristics of that community are given: apostolic teaching, community, Eucharist, and prayer.  The signs and wonders that were performed by the apostles were primarily cures,  evidence that the eschatological age of fulfillment had dawned. This miraculous  activity filled the bystanders with awe, the conventional response of human  beings who have witnessed the extraordinary power of God. The risen Lord  brought others into their midst and made their numbers increase. 

The short reading from 1 Peter contains a variety of themes: praise of God,  Christology, soteriology, eschatology. It opens with a doxology patterned after  a Jewish hymn of praise of God. Out of this theocentric perspective, the author  develops his Christology, declaring that Jesus is the mediator of the salvation that  comes from God. The new life that believers receive from God is eschatological  in nature, looking to the future for the fulfillment of God’s promise. The hope to  which the new life looks is eschatological, the inheritance that accompanies it is  eschatological, and the salvation that it guarantees is eschatological. This is the  living hope to which Christians are born. 

Thomas is the hinge that connects the two Resurrection appearances in the  Gospel. Absent for the first event, he is the central character of the second.  Thomas represents the second generation of Christians 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. Jesus states  that Thomas’ ultimate faith does not compare with the faith of those who do not  enjoy any sensible experience of the Lord. Thomas should be remembered, not  because he was absent or because he doubted, but because like us he was called  to believe on the word of others. 

Living the Word logo

Copyright © 2021, 2020, 2019, 2012, 2011, 2010 World Library Publications, a div. of GIA Publications, Inc. www.giamusic.com
All rights reserved. Used by permission.