Acts 2:42-47 / 1 Peter 1:3-9 / John 20:19-31
One of the challenges that we face in the morning is waking up.
In the morning, the bed is like a big magnet and our body is fighting the magnetic pull of the bed.
And if we didn't have a good night’s sleep, or running under the weather, then we are really like stuck to the bed.
So even if the alarm clock is ringing on and on, we will tell ourselves, just another 5 or 10 minutes, and then we will over-sleep and run late.
And talking about alarm clocks, there is this joke about a husband and wife having a cold war.
However, the husband had an early morning flight to catch the next day, but he didn’t want to talk to his wife and tell her about it.
So, he wrote a note and stuck it on her bedside table with this message, “Wake me up at 7:00 am”.
The next morning, he happened to open his eyes and he glanced at the clock, and it was already 8:30 am.
And there was a note stuck next to the clock that is written by his wife, and it read, “Wake up, wake up, it is already 7:00 am”.
So, the moral of the joke is that it is not worth having cold wars, because we will not gain anything and we will also be late for everything.
Not only alarm clocks may not be able to wake us up.
What we see around us, and what others say, may not wake us up either.
Especially when the issue is inconvenient, troublesome or burdensome to us.
We would ignore or resist, or look away and don’t want to hear about what really matters.
In the gospel, the risen Lord Jesus appeared to the disciples, and they were filled with joy when they saw the Lord.
But Thomas was not with them when Jesus came.
When the disciples told him that they had seen the Risen Lord, he was skeptical, to say the least.
And Thomas also made a very bold demand, and it is this: Unless I see the holes that the nails made in His hands, and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into His side, I refuse to believe.
For Thomas, seeing is not enough, he wants to touch the wounds of Jesus.
Maybe the death of Jesus on the Cross had broken the faith of Thomas, such that his faith also crumpled and withered away.
Maybe that is why Thomas made such a bold and challenging demand.
More than just doubting what the disciples said, Thomas wants the truth, and he even wants to touch the truth.
God is truth and God is life.
When Thomas was with the disciples, Jesus appeared again.
Jesus not only wanted Thomas to see and to touch the truth, He also came to give a wake-up call to the faith of Thomas.
From a crumpled and withered faith, Thomas woke up and declared: My Lord and my God.
Yes, God is truth and God is life.
But when it comes to the truth, we can ignore it or reject it, we can doubt it or disregard it.
But along with truth is also life, and the Lord of life will give us a wake-up call so that we will wake up to life, and the truth will also set us free.
And God is giving us a wake-up call through Pope Leo XIV.
The Pope called for a worldwide vigil of prayer for peace on the 11th of April.
We cannot ignore that call for prayer for peace.
To ignore is to disregard and even to doubt the horrors and the tragedies of war and violence.
But the truth is that blood is shed, and innocent lives are lost, and children and the defenceless are in danger.
When the world is not at peace, we won’t be at peace.
When blood is shed, we must pray, because only God can stop the violence and the bloodshed.
Let us heed the call to prayer because we must wake up to life, and the truth will also set us free, free to believe in the love of God, and to pray for the power of God to overcome war and violence and bloodshed.