{"id":1208,"date":"2020-04-19T09:41:49","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T14:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1208"},"modified":"2020-05-23T09:58:26","modified_gmt":"2020-05-23T14:58:26","slug":"has-the-reality-of-the-resurrection-sunk-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=1208","title":{"rendered":"Has the reality of the Resurrection Sunk In?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divine Mercy Sunday<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Acts 2: 42-47; 1 Pet 1: 3-9; Jn 20: 19-31 <\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Deacon Larry Brockman<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Has the reality of the Resurrection sunk in for you?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Gospel chronicles something that happened Easter Sunday night.  Clearly, the reality had not sunk in yet for the Apostles.  For John, Peter, Mary and Mary Magdalene, it had.  They had already seen Jesus.  But the rest of the Apostles were skeptical, doubtful.  It was too good to be true.  So, they were locked away in the upper room afraid.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It\u2019s kind of like all of us in today\u2019s world.  Here we are 2000 years later.  People today are a whole lot more knowledgeable about science and how the universe functions.  Nobody else has been raised from the dead in those 2000 years.  All we have to go by is the words of the witnesses of the time.  We must take it all on faith; and that\u2019s hard because it hasn\u2019t happened again and we have learned so much about life.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus knew that would be the case.  That\u2019s why he stayed around for 40 days after the Resurrection.  He ate and drank and visited with his Apostles over that 40 days; and was seen by 500 or so people.  After he ascended into heaven, and the Holy Spirit came to them, all of those witnesses were thoroughly convinced.  And that convincing began with the story of the doubting Thomas   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I was visiting Italy, I came across a great painting of the doubting Thomas by Caravaggio..  It really captures the moment and the intensity of the moment.  Now with that scene in mind, just close your eyes and think about this for a moment.  You saw this man Jesus endure incredible torture and suffering;  He was nailed to a cross and died in front of you;  And he was buried in a tomb with a huge stone rolled over it.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Caravaggio’s Doubting Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But now, he is standing in front of you, radiant and alive.  You know it is him because all of the wounds are visible to you, including the wound from the sword in the side.  Yes, seeing is believing.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas then confesses, \u201cMy Lord and my God\u201d.  And that says it all, doesn\u2019t it?  Only God could do this.  And not only that, God is standing there and telling you about it.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it took a while, probably most of those 40 days, but ultimately both the reality of the Resurrection and the consequences of it sank in.  It is the consequences which ended up causing so much joy.  Life goes on after death!  But only if we believe in Jesus and practice what he taught us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Divine Mercy Sunday Acts 2: 42-47; 1 Pet 1: 3-9; Jn 20: 19-31 Deacon Larry Brockman Has the reality of the Resurrection sunk in for you?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our Gospel chronicles something that happened Easter Sunday night.  Clearly, the reality had not sunk in yet for the Apostles.  For John, Peter, Mary and Mary Magdalene, it had.  […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[601],"tags":[613],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1214,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/1214"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}