Second Sunday of Easter, Year A (2026) - Fr James Baxter, OP

In these first weeks of Easter we see the paschal candle in all its glory. Taller than it will be as the year goes by, during Eastertide it is lit at all Masses, and until Pentecost it is always placed in a prominent place near the altar or ambo.

Go up close to the candle and you will see the sign of the cross either carved into it or painted onto it. You will see the calendar year, and the Greek alpha and the omega, showing that Christ is the beginning and end of all history.

You will also see five little sticks that are filled with incense.

Those sticks were placed there a week ago at the Easter Vigil, just before the candle was lit. The priest placed the five sticks into the candle in the shape of a cross, saying, “By his holy and glorious wounds may Christ the Lord guard us and protect us.”

His holy and glorious wounds.

When we think deeply over the accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, why he did what he did and appeared how he appeared, eventually we arrive at the question of why Jesus had any wounds at all after his resurrection. It would surely have been more fitting to his complete victory over evil for his body to be perfected, with all wounds totally healed. Instead, he is still carrying the scars of the awful torture of the crucifixion.

Why?

He doesn’t tell us, but one reason is surely to show his disciples, and Thomas in particular, that it is really him. Thomas needs some persuading. He is the one who says he must put his finger and hand into the holes that the spear and nails made. Only then will he believe.

It can seem such a reasonable and even prudent stance to take. It isn’t. Break the stance down, and what Thomas does is demand that Jesus accommodate himself to the conditions for belief that Thomas himself has created. It’s an amazing demand, but for us a very helpful one. Thomas’ exchange with the other disciples reveals something about the nature of belief. To believe is not just an act of the intellect, but it is an act of the intellect at the command of the will. I can choose to believe or not to believe. In a negative way, Thomas’ words are the best possible demonstration of this: “I refuse to believe.” That is an act of the will, with more than a trace of stubbornness behind it. The extraordinary thing is that Jesus goes along with this. He meets Thomas at the conditions for faith that Thomas has created. It is the sight of his wounds that breaks this stubbornness down.

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The wounds, though, are much more than proof that the risen Jesus is the same man who died on the cross. That prayer at the Easter vigil calls them “his holy and glorious wounds”. They are not part of the imperfection of Jesus that he needs healing from. Quite the opposite. The suffering of Jesus revealed the perfection of his love and obedience, and the wounds are signs of this. That is why St Bede famously says the wounds of Christ are like trophies, because they are signs of his glory. And far from being wounds that are in need of healing, they themselves heal. On Good Friday we heard in the first reading the prophecy from Isaiah about the suffering servant: “Ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried … through his wounds we are healed” (Is 53:4-5). Years after the resurrection, that is what St Peter will say about Jesus: “He himself bore our sins … by his wounds you have been healed.” (1 Pet 2:24)

When Peter and the other disciples see the risen Jesus doing things like making a fire, cooking breakfast, eating bread and fish, and generally doing very physical and ordinary things, it is to show them that he is not a ghost – he is a fully alive human being. But when they also see him still bearing his wounds, they can see before them all the glory of the paschal mystery – the passion, the death, and the resurrection of Christ. And every time we look at the paschal candle over the weeks ahead and notice those little sticks of incense, we can see them as the little trophies that they are – the signs of Christ’s glory.

Fr James Baxter, OP is the Parish Priest of Broadway, Glebe, and Pyrmont, New South Wales.