If you step back just a bit from the events of this week’s Gospel reading from the Fourth Gospel, and look at how it functions in the larger narrative, you can begin to see that the Temple and the Priesthood is being remade along with everything else on the First Day of the New Creation.

Rather than focusing on the experience of St.Thomas, let’s consider the meaning of Jesus’ words to the gathered community in the Upper Room on Easter Evening. We are being given a mission of reconciliation and empowered to by the Holy Spirit to be able to carry out that charge.