2nd Sunday of Easter, Cycle B
St. Mark Church, Fallston
April 14-15, 2012 / Sat. 4:00pm; Sun. 7:30, 9:00, 11:00 and 5:30pm
3 Ways of Knowing
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
3 Ways of Knowing
This morning, let’s suppose that I put a blindfold on you, then I bring you up here into the sanctuary and ask you: does this pail of water have water in it?
How can you answer the question without removing the blindfold? If you think about it, there are three ways that you can come to know whether or not the font has water in it.
The first way is obvious: you can reach in and feel with your hands. In other words, you can experience firsthand if the font is empty or full.
This way of learning is called EXPERIENCE. We get this knowledge through our senses – for example, by touching, much as Thomas in today’s Gospel wants to learn if this person really is Jesus by touching his wounds.
The second way to learn if the font contains water is to drop something into it – like this rock. If the rock hits the bottom of the font with a thud, you know that it is empty, but if it makes a splashing sound, you know that there is water in it.
This way of learning is called reasoning. We get this knowledge by logically concluding to it from certain facts that we know, like concluding that the font has water in it from the splashing sound that we hear.
Finally, the third way to learn if the font contains water is to ask someone you trust. So if you trust me and I say, “Yes, there is water in the font,” once again you get an answer to the question.
This way of learning is called believing. We get this knowledge by trusting someone, much as the disciples ask Thomas to trust them that Jesus is really alive.
Importance of Believing
So, there are three ways that we can come to know something: by experiencing, by reasoning, and by believing.
The interesting thing is that experts tell us that almost 80% of what we know comes from believing and not from experiencing or reasoning.
For example, most of us have never visited the Great Wall of China, but we believe what reporters tell us about it.
Believing Is Seeing
On these Sundays after Easter, the Scriptures call us to believe in the risen Jesus.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who do not see but still believe.” So, just as we accept so many things in everyday life by believing and trusting, we are also asked to accept the resurrection of Christ and the promise of our own resurrection in this way.
There is a common expression: Seeing is believing. But actually, the reverse is true.
If we believe only what we see, we will believe and trust and have faith in very little. The truth is: Believing really opens up our world of seeing.
Believing opens us to seeing great possibilities: for example, where we have come from, why we are here, and where we are going.
Jesus today and during this entire Easter Season of seven weeks call us to believe without seeing, to believe so that we can see so much more and much more deeply into things.
Acting on Believing
A final important insight is that we need to act on what we know by faith.
For example, if your doctor tells you that you have high cholesterol, and you trust him, you will probably use less mayonnaise on your sandwiches and less fatty cuts of meat.
The point is that we act on what we learn by ordinary, everyday faith, and we also need to act on what we learn from our faith in Jesus’ resurrection.
So, if we believe in the mystery of Jesus’ dying and rising, then we need to live that.
This means that we die to ourselves in innumerable ways every day:
Ø Like holding our tongue and counting to ten instead of just returning hurt for hurt
Ø Or burying the hatchet that has caused years of separation between you and a friend or relative
Ø Or going out of your way to help a senior whose health is failing
Ø Just look around…
And the interesting thing is that if we die to ourselves in ways like this, we will experience a fulfillment or a sense of being alive that nothing else can bring.
Our dying to self leads us to fuller life in the very doing of it and in turn, confirms that our belief in Jesus’ as risen is 100% true.
Conclusion
Believing opens us wide to what we are able to see and seeing, we are invited to act. Acting, in turn, confirms the truth of our belief!
That’s Easter life. That’s Easter transformation. That’s why we celebrate it for 50 days!
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