John 20:24-29 Jesus Appears to the Apostles with Thomas

Sunday, 11th April 2010
Second Sunday of Easter or
Divine Mercy Sunday
John 20:24-29


Thomas, called the Twin, who was one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples said to him, ‘We have seen the Lord,’ but he answered, ‘Unless I can see the holes that the nails made in his hands and can put my finger into the holes they made, and unless I can put my hand into his side, I refuse to believe.’

Eight days later the disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them. The doors were closed, but Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you,’ he said. Then he spoke to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; look, here are my hands. Give me your hand; put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving any more but believe.’ Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’
Jesus said to him: ‘You believe because you can see me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.’







Jesus Appears to the Apostles with Thomas. Speech
on Priesthood.

The apostles are gathered in the Supper room, around the table
where the Passover supper was consumed. But out of respect, the
central seat, that of Jesus, has been left empty.

Also the apostles, now that there is no longer One Who groups
and distributes them according to His will or by choice of love, have
placed themselves differently. Peter is still in his place. But Judas
Thaddeus is now in John's place. Then comes Bartholomew, the old-
est of the apostles, then James, John's brother, almost at the comer
of the table on the right hand side, with respect to me who am look-
ing on. John is sitting near James, but on the narrow side of the
table. After Peter, instead, comes Matthew, and after him Thomas,
then Philip, then Andrew, then James, Judas Thaddeus' brother,
and Simon Zealot on the other sides. The long side in front of Peter
is empty, as the apostles are sitting closer than they were at
Passover.

The windows are closed and the doors are locked. The lamp, of
which only two flames are lit, sheds a feeble light only on the ta-
ble. The rest of the large room is in a dim light.

As there is a sideboard behind him, John is entrusted with the
task of serving his companions with what they wish of their frugal
meal, consisting of fish, which is on the table, bread, honey and
fresh cheese. As he turns again towards the table, to give his elder
brother the cheese he asked for, John sees the Lord.

Jesus has appeared in a very strange manner. The central part
of the wall behind the apostles sitting at the table — a wall all of
one piece except for the little door in the comer — brightens up at
about one metre from the floor, with a feeble phosphoric light, like
that shed by certain little pictures, which are luminous only in the
dark at night. The light, about two metres high, is oval, like a niche.
From the brilliancy, as if He were advancing from behind veils of-
luminous mist, Jesus emerges with increasing neatness.

I do not know whether I have made myself understood. His Body
seems to flow through the thickness of the wall, which does not
open. It remains compact, but the Body passes just the same. Light
seems to be the first emanation of His Body, the announcement of
His approach. The Body at first consists of soft lines of light, as in
Heaven I see the Father and the holy angels: immaterial. Then it
becomes more and more material, taking the aspect of a real body
in everything, that of His Divine glorified Body.

It has taken me a long time to describe this, but it happened in
a few seconds.
Jesus is dressed in white, as when He rose and appeared to His
Mother. He is most handsome, loving and smiling. He is standing
with His arms along the sides of His Body, a little detached from
it, but with His Hands towards the floor and the palms towards
the apostles. The two wounds of His Hands are like two diamond
stars, from which two very bright beams issue. I do not see His Feet,
covered by His tunic, or His Chest. But from the fabric of His gar-
ment, which is not an earthly one, light emanates where the divine
Wounds are concealed. At the beginning Jesus seems to be nothing
but a Body of lunar whiteness, later, when it materialises appear-
ing outside the halo of light, His hair, eyes, skin have their natural
colours. In short, it is Jesus, Jesus-Man-God, but looking more
solemn now that He has risen.

John sees Him when He is already like that. Nobody else had
become aware of the apparition. John jumps to his feet, dropping
the plate of the little round whole cheeses on the table and, laying
his hands on the edge of the table, he bends a little towards it side-
ways, as if he were attracted by a magnet, and in a low subdued
voice he utters an intensely expressive «0h!».

The others, who had raised their heads from their plates at the
noisy fall of the plate of the cheese and at John's start and had
looked at him with astonishment, when they see his ecstatic posture,
look in the same direction as he is looking. They turn their heads
or they turn round, according to their position with respect to the,
Master, and they see Jesus. They all stand up, deeply moved and
happy, and they rush towards Him, as He, smiling more brightly
advances towards them, walking now on the floor like all mortals.
Jesus, Who previously looked fixedly only at John, and I think
that the latter turned round because he felt attracted by that glance
that caressed him, looks at them all and says: «Peace to you.»
They are all now around Him, some on their knees at His feet,
and among these there is Peter with John — and John even kisses
the hem of His tunic and presses it to his face as if he wished to be
caressed by it — some farther back, standing, but stooping in a
respectful attitude.

Peter, to arrive quicker, jumps over the seat without waiting for
Matthew to come out first and make room for him. It must be borne
in mind that the couch-seat served for two persons at a time.
^he only one who has remained a little farther away, somewhat
embarrassed, is Thomas. He is on his knees near the table. But he
dare not come forward, on the contrary, he seems to be trying to
hide behind the corner of the table.

Jesus, while stretching out His Hands to be kissed — the apos-
tles seek them with holy loving eagerness — looks around at the
lowered heads, as if He were looking for the eleventh. He has actu-
ally seen him from the very beginning and He is behaving so only
to give Thomas time to pluck up courage and come forward. When
He sees that the incredulous apostle dare not do so, ashamed as he
is of his lack of faith, He calls him: «Thomas. Come here.»

Thomas raises his head, embarrassed, almost in tears, but he dare
not go. He lowers his head again.

Jesus takes a few steps towards him and repeats: «Come here,
Thomas.» Jesus' voice is more authoritative than the first time.
Thomas stands up reluctantly, abashed, and goes towards Jesus.
«Here is the man who does not believe unless he sees!» exclaims,
Jesus. But in His voice there is the smile of forgiveness.

Thomas feels that, he dares to look at Jesus and sees that He is
really smiling, so he musters up courage and walks faster.
«Come here, quite close to Me. Look. Put your finger, if it is not
sufficient for you to look, into the wounds of your Master.»

Jesus has stretched His Hands out, then He has opened His tunic
on His chest, uncovering the gash on His Side. No light emanates
now from the Wounds. It no longer emanates since He began to walk
like a mortal Man, when He came out of the halo of lunar light, and
the Wounds now appear in their bloody reality: two irregular holes,
the left one of which extends as far as the thumb, and they pierce
a wrist and a palm at its base, and a long gash, which in the upper
part is lightly curved like a circumflex accent, on His Side.

Thomas trembles, looks but does not touch. He moves his lips,
but is not able to speak clearly.

«Give Me your hand, Thomas» says Jesus so kindly. And with His
right hand He takes the right one of the apostle, He grasps his fore-
finger and takes it towards the hole of His left Hand, He thrusts
it well into it, to make him feel that His palm has been pierced, and
then from His Hand He takes it to His Side. Now He grasps the four
fingers of Thomas, at their base, at the metacarpus, and puts those
four big fingers into the gash of His Side, making them go in dee-
ply, not limiting Himself to leaning them against its edge, and He
holds them there, looking fixedly at Thomas. A severe yet kind look,
while he continues to say: «...Put your finger here, put your fingers
and also your hand, if you wish so, into My Side and do not doubt,
but believe.» That is what He says while doing what I have said
previously.

Thomas — it would appear that the closeness of the divine Heart,
which He almost touches, has communicated courage to him — suc-
ceeds at last in speaking and uttering words, and falling on his knees
with his arms raised and bursting into tears of repentance, he says:
«My Lord and My God!» He cannot say anything else.

Jesus forgives him. He lays His right hand on his head and re-
plies: «Thomas, Thomas! You believe now because you have seen...
But blessed are those who will believe in Me without seeing! Which
reward shall I have to give them, if I have to reward you, whose
faith has been assisted by the power of seeing?...»

Then Jesus lays His arm on John's shoulder, He takes Peter by
the hand and approaches the table. He sits at His place. They are
now sitting as they were on Passover evening. But Jesus wants
Thomas to sit next to John.

«Eat, My friends» says Jesus.

But no one is hungry any more. Joy fills them. The joy of con-
templation.

So Jesus gathers together the little cheeses scattered on the ta-
ble, He puts them on a plate, He cuts them and hands them out, and
He gives the first bit just to Thomas, laying it on a piece of bread
and passing it behind John's shoulders; He pours wine from the am-
phorae into a chalice and hands it to His friends: this time Peter
is the first to be served. Then He has some honeycombs given to J
Him, He breaks them and gives the first bit to John, with a smile
which is sweeter than the golden trickling honey. And to encourage
them He eats some of it Himself. He tastes nothing but the honey.
John with his usual gesture rests his head on Jesus' shoulder, and
Jesus draws him to His Heart and speaks holding him so.

You must not get upset, My friends, when I appear to you. I am
always your Master, Who has shared with you food and sleep and
Who has chosen you because He loves you. I love you also now.»
Jesus lays much stress upon these last words.

«You» He continues «have been with Me in the trials... You will
be with Me also in the glory. Do not lower your heads. On Sunday
evening, when I came to you for the first time after My Resurrec-
tion, I infused the Holy Spirit into you... may the Spirit come also
to you who were not present... Do you not know that the infusion
of the Spirit is like a baptism of fire, because the Spirit is Love,
and love cancels sins? Therefore your sin of desertion, while I was
dying, is forgiven.» .

In saying so Jesus kisses the head of John who did not desert, and
John weeps for joy. •
I have given you the power to remit sins. But one cannot give
what one does not possess. So you must be certain that I possess
this power in a perfect manner and I make use of it for you, who
must be pure in the highest degree to purify those who will come
to you, soiled with sin. How could one judge and purify, if one
deserved to be condemned and were personally impure? How could
a man judge another man if he had planks in his own eyes and
infernal weights in his heart? How could he say: "I absolve you in
the name of God" if, because of his own sins, he did not have God
with him?

^My friends, consider your dignity of priests.
Before, I was among men to judge and to forgive. Now I am
going to the Father. I am going back to My Kingdom. The faculty to
judge is not taken off Me. On the contrary, it is entirely in My hands,
because the Father has entrusted it to Me. But it is a terrible judge-
ment because it will take place when it is no longer possible for man
to obtain forgiveness through years of expiation on the Earth. Each
human being will come to Me with his spirit when, through material
death, he leaves his body as useless mortal remains. And I will judge
him for the first time. Then Mankind will come again clothed with
its flesh, resumed by divine order, to be separated into two parts.
The lambs with the Shepherd, the wild billy-goats with their Tor-
turer. But how many men would there be, who would be with their
Shepherd, if after the Baptismal bath they did not have who can
forgive them in My name?

That is why I create priests. To save those who had been saved
by My Blood. My Blood saves. But men continue to fall into death.
To fall again into Death. It is necessary for them to be continuous-
ly washed in It, seventy and seventy times seven, by those who have
the authority to do so, so that they may not be a prey to Death. You
and your successors will do that. That is why I absolve you of all
your sins. Because you need to see, and sin blinds one, because it
deprives the spirit of the Light which is God. Because you need to
understand, and sin makes one dull, because it deprives the spirit
of the Intelligence which is God. Because it is your ministry to pu-
rify, and sin sullies, because it deprives the spirit of the Purity
which is God.

Great is your ministry of judging and absolving in My name!
When you consecrate the Bread and Wine .for you and make them
My Body and My Blood, you will do a great, supernaturally great
and sublime thing. In order to accomplish it worthily you must be
pure, because you will touch Him Who is the Pure One and you will
nourish yourselves with the Flesh of a God. You must be pure in
your hearts, minds, limbs and tongues, because with your hearts
you must love the Eucharist, and no profane love is to be mixed with
this celestial love, as that would be a sacrilege. Pure in your minds,
because you must believe and understand this mystery of love, and
the impurity of thought kills Faith and Intellect. The science of the
world remains, but the Wisdom of God dies in you. You must be
pure in your limbs, because the Word will descend into your
bosoms, as it descended into Mary's womb by deed of the Love.

You have the living example of how a bosom, which receives the
Word Incarnate, must be. The example is the Woman Who, without
original sin and without personal sin, bore Me. Look how pure is
the summit of the Hermon still enveloped in the veil of winter snow.
From the Mount of Olives it looks like a lot of lilies stripped of
their petals or like sea-foam, that rises like an offering against the other
whiteness of the clouds, blown by the April wind along the blue
fields of the sky. Look at a lily that now opens the mouth of
its corolla to a scented smile. And yet both purities are not so
bright as that of the womb that carried Me. Dust blown by the winds has
fallen on the snow of the mountain and on the silk of the flower. Human
eyes cannot perceive it, so light is it. But it is there, and it spoils
the whiteness. Even more, look at the purest pearl taken from the
sea, from the shell where it was bom, to adom the sceptre of a king.
It is perfect in its compact iridescence, that is unaware of the
desecrating touch of all flesh, as it was formed in the pearly hol-
low of the oyster, isolated in the sapphire fluid of sea depths. And
yet it is not so pure as the womb that bore Me. In its centre there »
is a grain of sand: a very minute corpuscle, but still an earthly one.
In Her Who is the Pearl of the Sea, there is no grain of sin, not even
of incentive to sin. The Pearl born in the Ocean of the Trinity to
bring the Second Person to the Earth, She is compact around Her
fulcrum, which is not the seed of earthly concupiscence, but the
spark of the eternal Love. The spark that found correspondence in
Her and thus engendered the Divine Meteor, that now calls and
draws to Itself the children of God: I, the Christ, the Morning Star.
I give you that inviolate Purity as example.

But when, as vintagers do with vats, you dip your hands into the
sea of My Blood and from it you draw what is needed to cleanse
the soiled stoles of the poor wretches who committed sin, be per-
fect, in addition to being pure, in order not to stain yourselves with
a greater sin, even more, with several sins, by shedding or touch-
ing the Blood of a God in a sacrilegious manner, or by failing in
love and justice, denying or giving it with a severity that is not of
the Christ, Who was good to the wicked to attract them to His Heart,
and three times good with the weak, to encourage them to be trust-
ful. Such severity would be used three times undeservedly, because
it would be used against My Will, My Doctrine and Justice. How
can one be severe with lambs when one is an idol shepherd?

0 My beloved friends, whom I am sending along the roads of the
world to continue the work that I began and that will be pursued
until the end of Time, remember these words of Mine. I am telling
you them so that you may repeat them to those whom you will con-
secrate to the ministry, to which I have consecrated you.

see... I look at future ages... Time and the infinite crowds of
\men that will exist are all in front of Me... I see... massacres and
wars, false peace treaties and horrible slaughters, hatred and rob-
bery, sensuality and pride. Now and again a green oasis: a period
of return to the Cross. Like an obelisk that indicates pure water
among the arid sands of the desert, My Cross will be raised with
love, after the poison of evil has made men rabid, and around it,
planted on the edges of healthy waters, there will thrive the palms
of a period of peace and wealth in the world. Spirits, like deer and
gazelles, like swallows and doves will rush to that pleasant, cool,
nourishing shelter, to be cured of their sorrows and hope once again.
And it will gather its branches close together like a dome as a pro-
tection from storms and dog-days and will keep away serpents and
wild animals with the Sign that puts Evil to flight. And it will be
so, as long as men so wish.

I see... Men and men... women, old people, children, warriors,
scholars, doctors, peasants... They all come and pass by with their
loads of hopes and sorrows. And I see many stagger, because their
sorrow is too great, and their hope has slipped off the load first of
all, as the load is too heavy, and their hope has crumbled on the
ground... And I see many fall on the roadsides, because they are
pushed by others who are stronger, stronger or luckier, as their
weights are lighter. And I see many who, feeling that they are aban-
doned by those who pass by, and they are even trampled on, and
feeling that they are about to die, go to the extent of hating and
cursing.

Poor children! Among all these, struck by life, who pass by or fall,
My Love has deliberately spread some compassionate Samaritans,
good doctors, lights in the night, voices in the silence, so that the
weak who fall may find assistance, and once again they may see
Light and hear the Voice that says: "Hope. You are not alone. Over
you there is God. Jesus is with you". I have deliberately placed this
active charity, so that My poor children may not die in their spirits,
losing their paternal abode, and they may continue to believe in '
Me-Love, seeing My reflecion in My ministers. "

But, o grief that makes the Wound of My Heart bleed as it did
when it was opened on Golgotha! But what do My divine eyes see?
Are there perhaps no priests among the infinite crowds passing by?
Is that why My Heart is bleeding? Are seminaries empty? So does-
My divine invitation no longer resound in hearts? Is man's heart
no longer capable of hearing it? No. Throughout ages there will be
seminaries and Levites in them. Priests will come out of them, be-
cause in the hour of adolescence My invitation will have sounder
with a celestial voice in many hearts, and they will have followed
it. But other, other, other voices will have come later with their
youth and maturity, and My Voice will have been overwhelmed in
those hearts. My Voice that speaks throughout ages to its ministers,
that they may always be what you are now: the apostles at Christ's
school. The cassock has remained. But the priest is dead. This will
happen to too many in the course of ages. Useless dark shadows,
they will not be a lever that lifts, a rope that pulls, a fountain that
quenches people's thirst, corn that satisfies their hunger, a heart
that is a pillow, a light in darkness, a voice that repeats what the
Master says to him. But for poor mankind they will be a weight
of scandal, a weight of death, a parasite, a putrefaction... Horror!
Once again and always I shall have the greatest Judases of the fu-
ture in My priests!

My friends, I am in My glory, and yet I weep. I take pity on these
infinite crowds, herds without shepherds or with too few shepherds.
Infinite pity! Well, I swear it on My Divinity, I will give them the
bread, the water, the light, the voice that those chosen for this work
do not want to give. I will repeat the miracle of the loaves and fish
in future ages. With few mean little fish, and with scanty crusts of
bread — humble laic souls — I will give food to many people, and
they will be satisfied, and there will be some for those of the fu-
ture, because "I feel sorry for this people" and I do not want it to
perish.

Blessed are those who will deserve to be such. Not blessed because
they are such. But because they will have deserved it with their love
and sacrifice. And most blessed those priests who will remain apos-
tles'. bread, water, light, voice, rest and medicine for My poor chil-
dren. They will shine in Heaven with a special light. I swear it to
you, I Who am the Truth.

"Let us get up, My friends, and come with Me, that I may teach
you again to pray. It is prayer that nourishes the strength of the
apostle, because it blends him with God.»

And here Jesus stands up and goes towards the little staircase.
But when He is at its bottom, He turns round and looks at me.
Oh! Father! He looks at me! He thinks of me! He looks for His little
«voice», and the joy of being with His friends does not make Him
forget me! He looks at me over the heads of the disciples, and smiles
at me. He raises His hand blessing me and He says: «Peace be with
you».