First Reading
Acts 2:42-47
1. How could the early Christians “sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s needs”? Could you go this far? Or would you sell only some? What about your time––could you give all of it? Some of it? Has the pandemic changed your attitude and decisions regarding your sharing and giving what you can?
2. Can you describe this early Christian community in a short sentence? Does your idea of community in the midst of the pandemic virus include all your brothers and sisters in the world? How is your faith strengthened by the faith of others? What fills you with “awe”?
Second Reading
1 Peter 1:3-9
1. According to Pope Francis in Evangelii Gaudium, was Christ’s resurrection just an event of the past?
Where all seems to be dead, signs of the resurrection suddenly spring up. Each day in our world beauty is born anew. It rises transformed through the storms of history. Values always tend to reappear under new guises, and human beings have arisen time after time from situations that seemed doomed. Such is the power of the resurrection, and all who evangelize are instruments of that power.
Pope Franceis, Evangelii Gaudium, 276
November 24, 2013
Gospel
John 20:19-31
1. “Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst.” Can any doors be locked tight enough to keep Christ out. Explain. Do you have “locked doors”? How is peace connected with forgiveness of sins?
2. Resurrections weren’t an everyday occurrence at the time this Gospel was written. Was it unusual for Thomas to be skeptical? Does John’s Gospel story of Thomas help those throughout the ages who may have doubts about Jesus’ resurrection?
