How does a person become a disciple of Jesus? The First Letter of John has an answer: You first have to know him. And how do you know him? By keeping his commandments and “his word.”

Last week we heard the story of Thomas, who couldn’t accept second-hand accounts of the Resurrection. And many of us sympathize, because it’s hard to believe things outside of the ordinary when we see them with our own eyes, much less when we hear the reports from outside sources.

Then the two went over everything that happened on the road and how they recognized him when he broke the bread. While they were saying all this, Jesus appeared to them and said, “Peace be with you.” They thought they were seeing a ghost and were scared half to death. He continued with them, “Don’t be upset, and don’t let all these doubting questions take over. Look at my hands; look at my feet—it’s really me. Touch me. Look me over from head to toe. A ghost doesn’t have muscle and bone like this.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and feet. They still couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It seemed too good to be true.

The 1987 Danish film Babette’s Feast tells the story of two sisters in a remote 19th-century Danish village who never marry and live a rigid life dominated by their father, the pleasure-denying pastor of their austere church. Both sisters had opportunities to leave the village. But their father objected and they instead spent their lives caring for him. 

Holy and righteous God, as we follow your commandments we show our love for you, and we believe you hear the prayers we make to you, for the glory of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

“God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand.” Peter told the people that the God of their ancestors had glorified Jesus, and Christ himself said that he is the fulfillment of the law, the prophets, and the psalms. Peter’s speech in Acts itself “fulfills” the gospel: Jesus told the disciples they would be “witnesses to him,” and lo-and-behold Peter attests: “Of this we are witnesses.”

Obedience calls for a listening and discerning heart. —Sister Charlene Diorka, S.S.J., vocationnetwork.org