Second Sunday of Easter: Branded

[Please send your comments and suggestions on this homily to: jms48@fuse.net]


Back when I was 13 years old,
an impressionable age for a young boy,
there was a TV show I couldn’t wait to watch every week.

Come Tuesday nights, I made sure I had my homework finished,
the stables bedded, the hogs slopped and the calves fed.

I made sure I got to the house to watch “Branded.”

The star of the show was Chuck Connors.
(Anybody here remember it?)

For those too young, let me tell you what you missed.

“Branded” was a story
about US Calvary Captain Jason McCord,
the only survivor of a massacre by the Apache.

He was dishonorably discharged
for abandoning his unit in the time of battle.
Before being discharged, he was whipped.
And he bore the scars of those lashes on his back.
And so he spends the rest of his life
trying to prove he isn't a coward like everyone believes.

It’s a great plot for a TV show,
but a lousy story when it comes to real life.

Unfortunately, it happens a lot.
Getting “branded” happens all the time, doesn’t it?

Not with lashes of a whip,
but by lashes of the tongue.

Somehow, somewhere along the way,
you get a reputation
you pick up name
and, suddenly, you’re branded.

Sometimes, for the rest of your life.

The terrible thing about branding
is that highlights one particular incident
to the exclusion of all others.

And, as I said,
branding occurs all the time.

Not even the saints of the Church
are exempt from the practice.

Consider Thomas, the apostle.

If I were to ask any of us in this church this morning
what word comes to mind to describe the apostle, Thomas,
that word would be “doubt.”

That’s how we know him.
“Doubting Thomas,”
the apostle who doubted the Resurrection of Christ.

It doesn’t matter
that other disciples
also doubted.

It doesn’t matter that they also refused to believe the women
who ran up the steps to the Upper Room
all out of breath and beside themselves
stating that Jesus had risen from the tomb.

It doesn’t matter that other apostles
denied Jesus,
and ducked for cover
and ran like scared rabbits!

Think it through. It’s not fair.
But Thomas’ entire life was forever shadowed
by that one incident.

Gives proof to the old saying that
it takes twenty years to build a reputation
but only two minutes to destroy it.

Ask Thomas, he’ll tell you what it feels like.
He’ll tell you that it doesn’t matter how many times
he walked beside Jesus,
and hung on every word of the Master.

It doesn’t matter that it was him, Thomas,
who, when Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem,
roused the others and said, “Let us go and die with him!”

He’s not remembered for those courageous words

We don’t call him “Courageous Thomas.”
We called him “Doubting Thomas”;
the disciple who found it difficult to believe.

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hand;
unless I put my hand into his side,
I will not believe.”

Poor guy.
His legacy fixed for all time
by that one single moment.

* * *

But let’s stop here a minute and ask ourselves a question.
(It’s a silly question but one I’m going to ask anyway):

How does the brand that Thomas wore on his back
compare with that of Chuck Connors’?

Let’s go back to that old TV show for just a minute.

Captain Jason McCord’ brand
was a sign of punishment,
something to live down.
He was branded a coward
so he spent the rest of his life
proving he was anything but a coward.

How does that compare with St. Thomas?

He was branded a doubter.
Yet our tradition holds that he was a believer.

And, according to that tradition,
he went further than any other disciple
in spreading the claim that Jesus rose from the dead.

That’s right!
Peter carried the faith to Rome,
Paul carried it to Athens,
Mark carried it to Egypt
and John carried it to Turkey.
But Thomas, it is said, preached the faith as far away as India.

Maybe his being branded “a doubter”
compelled him to “go the extra mile,” what do you think?

The extra mile to prove, not how much he doubted
but how deeply he believed and continued to believe?

What do you think?

[Now, the way you answer that question
will have a lot to do
with how you yourself respond
to moments of doubt.]

When push comes to shove,
how earnestly do you believe in the power of Christ
to triumph over death?

When depression becomes your constant companion.
When worry keeps you awake at night.

When there are test results waiting at the doctor’s office.
When your teenager has missed curfew and hasn’t called home
and her cell phone is turned off.

How do you respond?
Can you identify with the anguish in Thomas’ words:

“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hand;
unless I put my hand into his side,
I will not believe.”

If Thomas felt that way, so can I!

If St. Thomas allowed himself to be branded a doubter
I want to say to him,
“Thank you, Thomas!
Thank you for taking that lashing for me.

Because it shows me that the power of the glorified Christ
is stronger than my miserable doubt.

You reached beyond your doubt and found belief.
When I’m in a similar situation,
I hope I have the strength to do the same.”

Thank you, Thomas.
You show us how not to give up.

When push comes to shove,
you tell us to keep on reaching,
keep on straining through the darkness
until, at last, our fingers touch the hand of Christ.

Because, as you show us, Thomas, it’s his hand
and only his hand
that can take us where we need to go.”

* * *
What is it that Thomas noticed about the hand he touched?

It’s not the soft hand of a wise teacher
who has the answer to every question.

It’s not the fast hand of a miracle worker
who makes all the bad things go away.

Rather, it’s the hand of the Savior who laid down his life for you.
A that hand is branded…branded with the mark the nail.

* * *

The next time you find yourself
anxious or afraid or backed in a corner,
the hand that delivers you from darkness
is the one that’s been pierced by the nail.