INTRO:
When we were children it was required to have a paper route and then to save money by INVESTING into a savings bank: having a “Christmas Club” account! We would have to put “some” of what we made collecting money from the customers on our paper route into the savings bank.
From these investments we then would have money to buy our brothers and sisters something for CHRISTMAS!!!
That’s why it was called a CHRISTMAS CLUB!
My parents made investing “fun” and “exciting”!!!!
But more important than INVESTING $ (money) is:
INVESTING ONE’S SELF into Christ and the charitable works of the church!
Today we learn from “doubting Thomas”
He wasn’t present with the apostles the first day of Easter and couldn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus when they told him about seeing him in His resurrected body. Everyone wants to take THOMAS to task for doubting, thus his nickname… but could it not also mean HE WAS ONE of the apostles who wanted HUMAN CONTACT!!
Obviously more of a pragmatist in life, but still LOVED by Christ, nonetheless. Jesus wanted all to believe in this resurrection, him coming back to life……as he promised, thus coming back when THOMAS was around!!!
“I will lose nothing of what has been given to me.”
Thomas’s pragmatic request is VERY INTERESTING though. Think about it? He wanted to TOUCH JESUS… a very practical, but, demanding wish. He wanted HUMAN CONTACT with another person.
“I won’t believe unless I put my finger into the nail marks and my hand into His side”
As Thomas physically placed his hand into Jesus’s side, the church may be telling us to be physically invested into the lives of others, your children, your family, your neighbors, those unknown on the side of the street, those who wander, those in jail.
The church wants us to be of service and have HUMAN CONTACT with our brothers and sisters in need.
Our parish service day…how coincidental to be on this very day the church celebrates a doubting Thomas that wanted HUMAN CONTACT!
Here today we had HUMAN CONTACT with those we do not know, but are in need. For instance:
We helped prepare the old rectory of St. John the Baptist Church on Brown Street in Akron for becoming a new chemical dependency treatment center. We put our hands to work! It’s been vacant for some time and is in need of cleaning and organizing. We helped to provide a place for treatment services to the community. We had human contact!
We also went to three CATHOLIC WORKER homes on Princeton Street that provides housing for those in need. Our hands helped clean up, rake up, and wash windows!!! Hundreds have been in these homes since they began over twenty years ago. Again, doing what our Gospel proclaims…. HUMAN CONTACT.
CHRIST ON THE CORNER was our day to become what Jesus has wanted from all of us…. To allow us to put our hands into HIS SIDE, if you will… into the lives of those who live and breathe… and are in need.
Like, Thomas, whether we have to see to believe or to believe without proof, JESUS calls all of us to be willing:
To ENTER into the lives of others,
To INVEST OURSELVES into charity, especially to the poor, the marginalized, the unchurched, regardless of color, race, or creed.
CONCLUSION:
I started talking about INVESTING… the investing of our money, only to lead you into become one who INVESTS yourself into the lives of others, putting your hands to work in their lives.
Think about how DOUBTING THOMAS actually leads us into the lives of others.
“I won’t believe unless I put my finger into the nail marks and my hand into His side”