The Second Sunday of Easter
Sunday, April 12, 2026
St. James Cathedral (10:00am and Noon)

Watch this homily! (begins at 39:06)

My friends, as we gather on this Second Sunday of Easter, we continue to unpack the mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus. Over these next six weeks we will linger over stories of transformation that his rising from the dead brings about - in the lives of individuals and in the life of the community of believers.
 
This transformation is deeply personal, touching the lives of people on a very intimate level. It is also communal, bringing together those who were devastated by the crucifixion and are now filled with joy and given “a new birth to a living hope,” as St. Peter describes it.
 
This community of hope does what Christians have done ever since, down to this very gathering in this Cathedral today. We gather, as those first Christians, to devote ourselves “to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.”
 
This life together, and the intimate and personal encounter with the Risen Lord, begins in the upper room in Jerusalem on the evening of the first Easter Sunday and continues in the same place a week later. It is here that the followers of Jesus experience the unimaginable joy of seeing the Lord, not dead but alive.
 
Jesus’ first words to them are, “Peace be with you.” Those are the words the Risen Lord speaks to us. He offers us his peace in a very personal way. He offers us his peace when we are feeling lonely, depressed, fearful, and anxious. In those times, when we are tempted to run away from those feelings, or deny them, or to distract ourselves from them, Jesus says to us, “Peace.”
 
He offers us his peace as a community of faith as well. When we wonder if the world will ever know peace in the near future; if leaders will ever turn away from violence and destruction; if justice and morality will ever take center stage again — when we wonder about these things with a heavy heart, the Risen Lord speaks those words to us: “Peace be with you.”
 
Those words are both a reassurance and a task. They are a reassurance because they are spoken by the Risen One who has conquered sin and death and violence and injustice once and for all time. Those words are a task because you and I are called to be the presence of that victory in our world.
Just as Jesus sent those first followers to be his forgiving, reconciling love in the world, you and I are sent from this place to do the same.  And lest we think that we have to have it all together, and to completely believe and trust in the Lord’s promise with no doubts whatsoever, Thomas and his community of believers shows us that there is room for stumbling, doubting, groping faith.
 
Thomas says he will not believe the Lord is risen unless he has some proof, some reassurance. But, a week later, this doubter, this unbeliever is still part of the community. He is still with them. He is not expelled from the community because he has serious doubts.
 
They continue to embrace him so that when the Risen Lord appears again, a week later, Thomas can encounter him. Thomas can hear those words of reassurance, “Peace be with you.” He can see the scars from the crucifixion and he can believe.
 
My friends, as we devote ourselves to the teaching of the apostles, to our shared life of faith and to the breaking of the bread, may the Lord strengthen us individually and as a community of faith to be his forgiving, reconciling and life-giving presence in the world.
 
And, if there are times when we, or those we know, have doubts about whether the Lord can really give new life to us and to our world, let us allow the Lord, through this community of faith to embrace us, to comfort us, to strengthen us.
 
My friends, we are the ones that Jesus calls blessed in today’s Gospel. We are the ones who have not seen him physically, face to face, yet we believe. However imperfect that belief, that faith is, we believe.
 
And so, as we gather around the altar today, may we know that our breaking of the bread and sharing of the cup is a real encounter with the Risen Lord, who says to us, over and over again, “Peace be with you!”

Father Gary F. Lazzeroni