New Life; Living Hope:

 

                                                 New Life; Living Hope:

Second Sunday of Easter 2026 

April 12, 2026

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Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 118; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

 

Overwhelming joy punctuates the first Apostles as they come together in astonishment. Acts writes, “They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people.” Thomas cries out, “My Lord and My God” after receiving the Holy Spirit that ushers in a radical depth of peace. Peter explodes with praise as he writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope.” Wow. A new birth to a living hope. 

 

What does this tell us about Peter? These are words from a man whose life was significantly changed. He is becoming someone new because of the Resurrection. We have to realize that God is not simply making us into better people; God is making us into new people. This is about transformation, new life, not simply that we improve who we are. We can think about salvation as “enjoying the fulness of new life.” Salvation moves us into wholeness, into an inner vitality. Salvation is far more than being saved from sin; Let us put sin in its proper perspective. Salvation is about enjoying the fulness of life. What do you need to embrace this “newness?”

 

Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, speaks about this as the “magis,” the more. Sometimes we feel stuck with our fate or state in life, or we look at our lives as defined by past failures, or we have reached a point of resignation where we simply say, “This is just who I am.” No. There’s more. There’s much more. Through God’s mercy, we are given a living hope. You have been given new life with a living hope. We cannot let ourselves settle when new life is offered to us.

 

This is not an ordinary, passive hope in which we say, “I hope things get better,” or “In the end, all will be well.” This is an active, living hope that has already begun within us. It has already started. We can now strive for our best, hold not the love we had in childhood, and to know of our essential goodness even when life has battered us down. This is a living hope that cannot die – even when we die. This is about a relationship now and in the future, a relationship with the Risen Jesus who is alive right now and reaches out to you with gentle hands. Our hope is not optimism. Our hope is what happens when Christ walks into our fear and does not leave. This is Christ’s mercy to us. Christ enters into the fabric of our life and is pleased to be there. 

 

Some might ask, “How can we have hope when there are overwhelming dark forces in the world, when we feel like we are stuck in the tomb? Sometimes, the tomb can provide us safety from the menacing powers.” We may wonder, “Where are you, O God? How can you permit this darkness?” You are right to ask. Fear has no place in God’s plan. We are called out from the tomb, out of our fears into an unstable world. We are called to live in the resurrection. It was not just something that happened to Jesus, it is something that is happening to us. Humanity will reach a tipping point when there are more people with expanding consciousness and compassion to reshape the world.

 

What does this mean for us? We can make ourselves vulnerable and risk loving generously because that love can never be lost. We can endure suffering with hope because suffering is not the final word. We can let go of lesser concerns because something greater awaits us. God is always standing before us – beckoning us forward, waiting in the future, leading us toward a future that cannot be taken away. It might be time for us to make some radical changes in our thinking. Let us go forward together and raise our consciousness to higher matters. Let us drop everything that holds us back from the fulness to which we are called. Let us live in this love that knows no limitations.

 

Today, we read about Jesus coming back to see Thomas with the Apostles. We saw how he came back for Mary Magdalene, for Peter, and the Others. We also know that the first person he visited was a woman in grief, sitting in her courtyard filled with overwhelming loss. What son have risen from the dead would not first return to his mother? And Jesus has not forgotten you. He will come for you. He will appear to you in many ways before you recognize that you matter, that you matter a great deal to him, that he cares for you, that he wants your friendship, that you are lovable and worthy of his love, that he wants to give you the fullness of life. If you knew how much you are loved, you would do everything in your power to live as God sees you. This is what I want for you too. Within the Resurrection, there is nothing to hold us back. Let us explore the energy of this creative love, this transformative mercy, that transforms lives and grounds us in living hope.