Scars Are Signs of God’s Glory
Director of Music &
Liturgy
~ Think for a moment about a scar you have, and a word or two you might pick to describe the circumstances that led to it. Perhaps words like “accident” or “scary” come to mind, or “embarrassed,” “foolish,” or even “reckless.” But I doubt the word “glorious” came to mind.
Yet it is on this 2nd Sunday of Easter each year when we hear about the apostle Thomas and his first encounter with the risen Lord. (I typically refuse to use the usual nick name for him: how would you like to have an everlasting nickname based on the weakest and lowest moment of your life?) Thomas requires the same visual proof the other apostles had of Christ’s resurrection and indeed just a little bit more, we all are familiar with the narrative.
Christ’s resurrected and glorified body certainly could have been made completely whole again, yet the wounds of the nails and spear persist, and Thomas is able to touch and feel them. “My Lord and My God” he cries (John 20:28). Christ is truly here a wounded healer — and beyond that, a teacher, a friend, and a brother. Liturgically, this attention to the “scars” of Christ should call our attention to his humanity along with his divinity, and that we are invited to share that with him, one day.
On M*A*S*H, Charles Emerson Winchester once famously said, “I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, and then I move on.” May I suggest that we all make sure that, at every liturgy, the fraction rite doesn’t become a side note to a lingering sign of peace? We should all wait for one moment to end before beginning the next, so that the immense symbolism in our midst has a chance to express itself fully to a congregation fully aware of the rite.
The missal tells us, “…the gesture of the fraction or breaking of bread … was quite simply the term by which the Eucharist was known in apostolic times…” (RM 321) and it is at this eucharistic table which brings us in one moment to Christ broken on the cross and to a foretaste of the eternal and heavenly banquet. We believe, as we sing in the Agnus Dei accompanying the rite, that it is that Christ broken on the cross – the same Christ with wounds still present in his resurrected and glorified body – which is the ultimate sign of God’s mercy and that only with God in paradise will we know that true and divine peace.
Throughout the year, we present an article in the bulletin each week on a variety of topics, written by a member of our Parish staff or ministries on a rotating basis.
