Challenge Your Limits!

• Tweet
• Pin It

15 April 2012, 2nd Sunday of Easter, John 20: 19-31

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord! But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Challenge Your Limits!

It is one thing to be locked inside a room from the outside. It’s quite another to be locked from the inside. To be locked from the outside means the hindrance is from without. To be locked from the inside means the hindrance is from within. This is a greater tragedy. It is akin to trying to wake up someone who is playing asleep.

Today we find the apostles gathered in a room, windows sealed, doors locked…. from the inside. Being locked from the inside is not a physical description of the apostles’ situation. Locked “from the inside” is a description of what is really going on inside of their hearts. A better description really is, they locked themselves inside a room because of fear and intimidation. It was a case of self-exile. It was a case of default defeat.

What were they fearful of? One could be fear of persecution and maybe even eventual execution. They were apostles of Jesus. They were prime targets. The religious leaders could very well have been looking for them with the aim of eliminating anything and anyone that could perpetuate the memory of Jesus whom they have put to death. What was done to Jesus could very well be done to them as well. It is understandable that they locked themselves inside a room. They did not want to take the risk. It was too much of a challenge to take.

I remember reading once this wise advise: “Do not limit your challenges; challenge your limits.” The apostles felt limited by the challenge to be witnesses to Jesus:  “What if we get caught?”, “What if we get executed as well?”  But the Risen Christ wanted them to challenge their limitations and free themselves from the chains of their fears. He breathed on them the Spirit, the Gospel says and once more, assured of Jesus’ forgiveness and companionship, the band of apostles were recreated and transformed.

Had the apostles limited their challenges, had they remained locked inside of that room, we would never have had the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith. Because they challenged their limitations, John’s prophecy in the Gospel came to be: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (v 31)

It will do us well to note that on the morning of the Resurrection, Mary Magdalene and her companions went into the tomb to anoint the body of the dead Jesus but found instead “…that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large”(Mark 16:4). The stone was “rolled away”, not so that Jesus could go out. As we read in the Gospel today, Jesus appeared in the midst of the apostles despite the closed doors and windows. The Risen Christ can now pass through walls, He is no longer bound by space and time. The stone was rolled away so that Jesus’ believers might enter in, that YOU and I might enter in, and like the beloved disciple, we might “enter in, see and believe” (see John 20:8).

When you feel challenged by people, events and circumstances, what is your immediate reaction? Are you most often limited by these challenges? Or do you challenge your limits? This second Sunday of Easter let us pray for the Easter gift of apostolic courage!

In your silent moments today, pray this prayer: “Lord Jesus, You are the potter, I am the clay. Mold me, shape me, break me. Bring me beyond the limits to the fullness of my potentials.” Amen!

by:  Fr. Joel Jason

Related Posts

• 

  Convincing proofs of the resurrection
  Convincing proofs of the resurrection
• The meaning of Christ’s gift of peace to the Church
  The meaning of Christ’s gift of peace to the Church
• 

  Only union with God brings freedom, Pope says on Holy Thursday
  Only union with God brings freedom, Pope says on Holy Thursday
• 

  Live and Let Die
  Live and Let Die