Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Praise the LORD, all you nations; glorify him, all you peoples! For steadfast is his kindness for us, and the fidelity of the LORD endures forever.

Thomas, called Didymus, 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 said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." Now a week later his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

“Put your finger into the mark of the nails”, Jesus said to Thomas. “You were looking for me when I was not here; take advantage of it now that I am here. I know what you are wanting to do in spite of your silence. Even before you tell me, I know what you are thinking. I heard what you said and, even though unseen, I was beside you, close to your doubts, and made you wait so that I could witness your impatience all the better without revealing myself . Put your finger into the mark of the nails; put your hand into my side; and do not be unbelieving, but believe.” Then Thomas touched him. All his defiance fell away and, filled with sincere faith and all the love owing to God, he cried out: “My Lord and my God!” And the Lord said to him: “You have believed because you have seen me. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe! Thomas, take the news of my resurrection to those who have not seen. Lead the whole world to belief, not at the evidence of its eyes but at your word. Go through peoples and pagan cities. Teach them to the carry the cross on their shoulders, not weapons... Tell them they are called by grace and, as for you, consider their faith: truly, happy are those who have not seen and yet believe!” Such is the army the Lord has raised; these are the children of the baptismal pool, the works of grace, the harvest of the Spirit. They have followed Christ without having seen him; they sought and they believed. They recognised with the eyes of faith, not of the body. They have not placed their fingers in the marks of the nails but have been fastened to his cross and embraced his sufferings. They have not seen the Lord's side but, through grace, have been made one with his members and have made their own these words of the Lord: “Happy are those who have not seen and have believed!”

Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Isaac grew, and on the day of the child's weaning, Abraham held a great feast. Sarah noticed the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham playing with her son Isaac; so she demanded of Abraham: "Drive out that slave and her son! No son of that slave is going to share the inheritance with my son Isaac!" Abraham was greatly distressed, especially on account of his son Ishmael. But God said to Abraham: "Do not be distressed about the boy or about your slave woman. Heed the demands of Sarah, no matter what she is asking of you; for it is through Isaac that descendants shall bear your name. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a great nation of him also, since he too is your offspring." Early the next morning Abraham got some bread and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. Then, placing the child on her back, he sent her away. As she roamed aimlessly in the wilderness of Beer-sheba, the water in the skin was used up. So she put the child down under a shrub, and then went and sat down opposite him, about a bowshot away; for she said to herself, "Let me not watch to see the child die." As she sat opposite him, he began to cry. God heard the boy's cry, and God's messenger called to Hagar from heaven: "What is the matter, Hagar? Don't be afraid; God has heard the boy's cry in this plight of his. Arise, lift up the boy and hold him by the hand; for I will make of him a great nation." Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went and filled the skin with water, and then let the boy drink. God was with the boy as he grew up.

When the poor one called out, the LORD heard, and from all his distress he saved him. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Fear the LORD, you his holy ones, for nought is lacking to those who fear him. The great grow poor and hungry; but those who seek the LORD want for no good thing. Come, children, hear me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. Which of you desires life, and takes delight in prosperous days?

When Jesus came to the territory of the Gadarenes, two demoniacs who were coming from the tombs met him. They were so savage that no one could travel by that road. They cried out, "What have you to do with us, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the appointed time?" Some distance away a herd of many swine was feeding. The demons pleaded with him, "If you drive us out, send us into the herd of swine." And he said to them, "Go then!" They came out and entered the swine, and the whole herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea where they drowned. The swineherds ran away, and when they came to the town they reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. Thereupon the whole town came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their district.

Today Jesus Christ has entered the depths of hell, conquering them. Today, “bronze doors he has shattered, iron bars he has snapped”, as Isaiah says (45,2). Take note of these words. He does not say that he has “opened” the bronze doors or has taken them down but that he has “shattered” them, in this way making us understand that the prison-house exists no more, that Jesus has totally destroyed the place where captives dwell. A prison that no longer has doors or bolts can hold its prisoners no more. Who could rebuild the doors that Christ has shattered? Who could replace the bolts that he has snapped? When the princes of the earth set prisoners free by issuing a reprieve, they still leave in place the gates and prison guards to show those who are leaving that they might still return – either they or some others. But Christ does not act like this. When he shatters the bronze doors, he bears witness that there is no more captivity, no more death. Why “bronze” doors? Because death was pitiless, inflexible, as hard as diamond. Not once through all the centuries before Jesus Christ, not once did any of its captives escape it until the day when the Lord of heaven descended to the abyss to snatch its victims from it.

As dawn was breaking, the angels urged Lot on, saying, “On your way! Take with you your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city." When he hesitated, the men, by the LORD'S mercy, seized his hand and the hands of his wife and his two daughters and led them to safety outside the city. As soon as they had been brought outside, he was told: "Flee for your life! Don't look back or stop anywhere on the Plain. Get off to the hills at once, or you will be swept away." "Oh, no, my lord!" replied Lot. "You have already thought enough of your servant to do me the great kindness of intervening to save my life. But I cannot flee to the hills to keep the disaster from overtaking me, and so I shall die. Look, this town ahead is near enough to escape to. It's only a small place. Let me flee there--it's a small place, isn't it?--that my life may be saved." "Well, then," he replied, "I will also grant you the favor you now ask. I will not overthrow the town you speak of. Hurry, escape there! I cannot do anything until you arrive there." That is why the town is called Zoar. The sun was just rising over the earth as Lot arrived in Zoar; at the same time the LORD rained down sulphurous fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah (from the LORD out of heaven). He overthrew those cities and the whole Plain, together with the inhabitants of the cities and the produce of the soil. But Lot's wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Early the next morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood in the LORD'S presence. As he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and the whole region of the Plain, he saw dense smoke over the land rising like fumes from a furnace. Thus it came to pass: when God destroyed the Cities of the Plain, he was mindful of Abraham by sending Lot away from the upheaval by which God overthrew the cities where Lot had been living.

Search me, O LORD, and try me; test my soul and my heart. For your mercy is before my eyes, and I walk in your truth. Gather not my soul with those of sinners, nor with men of blood my life. On their hands are crimes, and their right hands are full of bribes. But I walk in integrity; redeem me, and have mercy on me. My foot stands on level ground; in the assemblies I will bless the LORD.

As Jesus got into a boat, his disciples followed him. Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by waves; but he was asleep. They came and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We are perishing!" He said to them, "Why are you terrified, O you of little faith?" Then he got up, rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. The men were amazed and said, "What sort of man is this, whom even the winds and the sea obey?"

The tradition of the Christians is no mere earthly discovery that was committed to them, nor is it a mortal idea that they think fit to guard so carefully, nor have they been entrusted with merely human secrets. But in reality the omnipotent, all-creating, invisible God from heaven introduced among men the truth and the holy and incomprehensible word and has established it in their hearts. He did not send, as one might imagine, some servant or angel or ruler, or one of those who manage things on earth, or one of those who have been entrusted with the administration of affairs in heaven (cf. Eph 1,21), but the “designer and creator” of the universe himself (Heb 11,10). It was by him that God created the heavens, by him he enclosed the sea in its own limits, whose secrets all the elements faithfully keep, from whom the sun has received the measures of the courses of the day to keep, whom the moon obeys when he commands her to shine at night, whom the stars obey, as they follow the course of the moon; by whom all things have been constituted and had their limits set and made subject, the heavens and the things in the heavens, the earth and the things on the earth, the sea and the things in the sea, fire, air, abyss, the things in the heights, the things in the deeps, the things between. It was he God sent to them. Did he though do it as a man might suppose, like a tyrant with fear and terror? Not at all. But with gentleness and meekness, like a king sending his son, he sent him as king, he sent him as God, he sent him as man to men; he sent as seeking to save, as persuading, not compelling, for compulsion is not the way of God.