Happy Easter!  Today we complete the Easter Octave. Each of these eight days has been a celebration of the Resurrection of the Lord and of our salvation.  And our Easter feasting has just begun!  Whereas we fasted seeking repentance and conversion during the 40 days of Lent, we celebrate Easter for 50 days.  We are an Easter People!
                 
It is still Easter Sunday in today’s Gospel and we hear that the doors were locked.  Jesus came through those locked doors twice, first when Thomas was not with the disciples, and later the next week when he was.  Both times Jesus stood in their midst and said “Peace be with you.”  Both times He showed them the marks in His hands and in His side.  The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” In the loving embrace, without recriminations about all that had occurred since the last time they were together, the disciples recognized the risen Lord.   Jesus demonstrated, through Thomas’ doubt, that in His resurrected self He is still tangibly present, able to touch and be touched.  At the same time, Jesus also told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” 
                 
New Testament scholar, Daniel Harrington, SJ noted that what most affirmed the resurrection of Jesus was not the empty tomb, or even His appearances, like those in today’s Gospel.  Rather, it was the remarkable transformation, that came over the people who experienced the risen Lord, just as we heard in today’s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles.  They were transformed into a community of believers, of one heart and mind.
Record numbers poured into St. Angela’s for the Easter Masses; the old, the young, those in wheel chairs and in strollers, those seemingly without a care in the world and those heavily burdened.  We welcomed babies, children, and adults into the faith and into our community.  All are drawn by the truth of the Resurrection, hoping to participate in a community of believers, one in heart and mind.  
                 
St. Angela’s is our upper room where, like the disciples, we gather each week after being literally and figuratively scattered by preoccupations, obligations, limitations, weariness, and pride, to be reminded of the Good News.  As a community of believers, one with Jesus and with one another, we confront our weakness and surrender our suffering on the cross with Jesus.  Our hoped-for mercy is made real in His resurrection and continuing presence in our midst as we, individually and collectively, can choose to accept God’s transformation of us.  There is no reason to fear, the doors to our hearts can be thrown open every day.  Our doubts will be assuaged.  Peace and forgiveness have conquered the darkness of sin and death.  Filled with awe through the risen Lord we too can hold all that matters in common.  Jesus Christ is risen today.  Alleluia.  Alleluia.