Life in His Name

The remainders are to bring healing and peace in His Name is a theme of the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary for the Second Sunday of Easter. Remainders is the explanation of Fr Larry Gillick SJ of the root of the word “relic” which is some physical part of a person, often a canonized saint, which is preserved as a sign and pointer to a life which is connected in a known way to the mission of Jesus. Friar Jude Winkler links those who live with the Holy Spirit in the Church today as being like Peter, described in the Acts of the Apostles, bringing peace and healing in the name of Jesus to our communities. The testimony of John, caught up in the Spirit on Patmos, of the Mission given him by Jesus to revitalize the Churches of Asia Minor in times of persecution is a reminder that the purpose of the work of the Evangelist John that “you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31) is a testimony of being loved to death by the King who rules from a cross. The intimate attention of Jesus to our doubts, fears and apprehensions, which is presented by John through the recounting of the experience of Thomas in the Gospel today, brings the “Shalom” with which we are invited to live Life in Jesus as His remainders.