On seeing Jesus, the disciples “worshiped, but they doubted.”

Pentecost celebrates not only the coming of the Holy Spirit but also its actions in our hearts and minds and in the church.

We love one another as God loves us. How does God love? How do we show God’s love for us in the way we love others?

At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles Jesus did not ascend immediately; he spent a highly symbolic 40 days—reminiscent of his 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry—speaking to the apostles “about the kingdom of God.”

What “houses of Cornelius” have you had to enter? When have you had to cross a religious or social boundary to bring God to people? When, like Peter, has your idea of what’s possible for God been broadened?

Trust, faith, love. Scripture sounds these great themes this week. Trust, not only in God but also in former enemies. Faith in the true vine. Loving in deed as well as words.

Believing in Jesus, our good shepherd, makes us God’s children and opens us to God’s love, healing, and salvation. Out of this relationship, spiritual benefits flow. The key lies in accepting Jesus as savior.

The gospel paradox asserts itself in the readings. The author of life is put to death. The sinner is forgiven. The ghost has flesh and bones.

In this world we sin and we die. It is only in faith that we share in the Lord’s victory over sin and death. Thomas seeks proof; it is only the direct experience of the Lord’s suffering that brings him to confess that Jesus is Lord.

There is no story of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead, only the eye-witnesses’ accounts of the empty tomb and his appearances among his friends. Though crucified, he did not condemn those who betrayed and abandoned him. Rather, he forgave and commissioned his believers to do the same.