38 He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39 Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” ​40 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet.

How do beliefs work? How do we believe something? Beliefs are related to tradition, as well as evidence. Sometimes we believe because something was taught in a certain way, and others because the evidence is unquestionable. We are a community that believes in the same ideas about God and Jesus. The key point is, why do we believe it? Tradition or evidence? What kind of evidence do we need to believe? Empirical? Miracles? Signs, or can we just believe in the truth coming from the bible?

In 2018, an enterprise called YouGov asked the question: "Do you believe that the world is round or flat?" 84% of Americans indicated that they've always thought the world is round. But as the age of respondents decreased, the number of persons who were always sure the world is round dropped. While only 4% indicated they'd always believed the world is flat, a whopping 16% (highest of any age group) said, "Not sure." In sum, 1 in 5 persons aged 18-24 indicated that they always thought the world was flat or just weren't sure. That's a lot of people. For some Flat Earthers, evidence of the Earth's shape may be found in the Bible. More than half of Flat Earthers (52%) consider themselves very religious.

Talking about belief, we can cite the African Proverb which says: "A child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth." Belief coming to us through different channels example: Marriage, it means when we get married we trend to assume a mutual belief about life, also our Family in general, I mean Kids assume their parents' beliefs, also Friendship because being connected to others through a common interest we also assume beliefs, for sure the local Church, because being connected to other believers we share beliefs and doctrine and finally coming from others groups as school or University due connecting people and through educational process we receive beliefs not just information.

Followers of Jesus in the early church were appealed to believe through the resurrection evidence. After Easter, the gospel recounts the appearances of Jesus. At first, in the first years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Christians were concerned with defending the resurrection through apparitions.

They were during the great appearance of the risen Jesus, but to the extent that the enemies' criticism of faith in the resurrection grew and, internally, criticism and debts arose regarding various functions in the communities (cf. 1 Cor 1:12), they will begin to remember the appearances of Jesus. There are two types of apparitions in the gospel: (a) those that accentuate doubts and resistance of the disciples in believing in the resurrection, and (b) those that draw attention to Jesus' orders to the disciples, conferring upon them some mission. The first response to criticism from outside. They show that Christians are not naive and gullible people who accept anything. On the contrary. They had many doubts about believing in the resurrection. The others respond to criticism from within and base community functions and tasks not on the always debatable human qualities, but on the authority and orders received from the resurrected Jesus. The appearance of Jesus narrated in today's gospel combines two aspects: the disciples' debts and the mission to proclaim and forgive received from Jesus.

In Luke 24:35, we find the summary of Emmaus. Upon returning to Jerusalem, the two disciples found the community gathered and communicated the experience they had. They narrated what happened along the way and how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The gathered community tells them, in turn, how Jesus appeared to Peter. It was a mutual sharing of the experience of resurrection, as happens to this day when communities come together to share and celebrate their faith, their hope, and their love.

In Luke 24:36-37, we find that the appearance of Jesus causes fear in the disciples. At this moment, Jesus becomes present among them and says, "Peace be with you!" It is Jesus' most frequent greeting: "Peace be with you!" (John 14,27; 16,33; 20,19.21.26). But the disciples, seeing Jesus, remain afraid. They are scared and do not recognize Jesus. Before them is the real Jesus, but they imagine that they are seeing a spirit, a ghost. There is a disagreement between Jesus of Nazareth and the resurrected Jesus. They can't believe it.

In Luke 24:38-40, we find Jesus helping them overcome fear and disbelief. Jesus does two things to help the disciples overcome fear and disbelief. He shows them his hands and feet, saying: "It is I!", and orders the body to be palpated, saying: "Because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." Jesus shows his hands and feet because the marks of the nails are on them (cf. Jn 20:25-27). The resurrected Christ is Jesus of Nazareth, the same one who was killed on the Cross, and not a ghost Christ as the disciples imagined seeing him. He ordered the body to be palpated because the resurrection is the resurrection of the whole person, body, and soul. The resurrection has nothing to do with the theory of the immortality of the soul, taught by the Greeks.

In Luke 24:41-43, we find another gesture to help them overcome disbelief. But it's not enough. Luke says that because of so much joy, they could not believe it. Jesus asks to be given something to eat. They gave him a piece of fish, and he ate in front of them to help them overcome the debt.

In Luke 24:44-47, we find a reading key to understand the new meaning of Scripture. One of the greatest difficulties of the first Christians was accepting a crucified person as the promised messiah since the law itself taught that a crucified person was "a cursed person of God" (Dt 21:22-23). Therefore, it was important to know that Scripture had already announced: "that Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that conversion for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all nations." Jesus showed them that this was already written in the Law of Moses, in the prophets, and the Psalms. The risen Jesus, alive among them, becomes the key to unlocking the full meaning of Holy Scripture.

In Luke 24:4,8, we find the expression: You are witnesses of this. In this final order is the mission of Christian communities: to be witnesses of the resurrection, so that the love of God who welcomes us and forgives us is manifest and wants us to live in community as his sons and daughters, brothers, and sisters, one of them. 

We are called to believe, as followers of Jesus we face different trials for our faith, sometimes natural and clear enough other they are hidden under the dress of the circumstances. Our beliefs are required to keep our lives under God's providence and to live under His grace and love. Sometime is easier for people believe that the Earth is flat than the resurrection.

There is a mortal power in beliefs. I would like to illustrate it with a brief story. Jonestown, November 18, 1978, was a location where the mass murder, suicide of members of the California, based Peoples Temple cult at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones, occurred in the Jonestown agricultural commune, Guyana. The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 who were age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. When people believe in the wrong manner or in error, the consequences can be devastating.
​
The bible shows us evidence about Jesus' resurrection, which includes testimonies and facts, but we need to decide to believe it. Even though that sounds too simple, in general, we can assume faith as a tradition, as an influence, or as a belonging, and when the trials come into our lives, we face doubts and resistance to believe as the first followers of Jesus. Something as Thomas did, we demand evidence, and we just need to come to our own lives and check all the mercy and love that God has shown us through our existence. Even if we are sick now, God has taken care of us for a long time before. Even when we lost something, the truth is God has given us a lot of undeserved gifts, and Jesus has given us our salvation. Also, we can recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives through empirical evidence. For example, if we are weak, we can feel his hands giving us strength, we can identify His voice in the comfort coming from people around, the Holy Spirit is guiding us in worship, even when we are sad or experience loneliness. The peace given for Jesus comes to us as well as it did for the first follower in the early church.

We can come as a community to share the testimonies and be encouraged through the work God is doing through us, but also in others around us. We are a Witness Community; we have enough evidence to believe in Jesus as our savior, our healer, and our Lord. Jesus shows us His bounds and tells us the same that He said to the followers: it is I. He won over death to help us to overcome our fears and disbeliefs. His resurrection is the most important evidence of His power, so we can trust in Him as the conqueror over death. As Jesus ate the piece of fish to support the faith of His disciples before, now He gives us a lot of signs coming from the Holy Spirit to support our faith in the midst of our personal crisis. But also, Jesus points us to the Scriptures to come and verify all the coherence of God's plan for our lives. Everything that has been written has also helped us to believe in God's love.

Then we are witnesses of everything about God's kingdom, and because of that our mission is announce Jesus resurrection and the message of love offered by God for all human beings. We are witnesses of His resurrection, we are a community of believers that proclaim and support a mutual testimony of faith in such a way that when one is weak, the rest of the community comes to support him or her, when someone is happy, everyone celebrates together his or her joy. When we pray together, when we learn together, when we worship together, we build a sense of community which is one of the more appreciated values for a world full of loneliness, depression, and sadness, but in Jesus, we find joy and hope because He lives.

11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

The fourth Sunday of Easter invites us to reflect on the good shepherd. In the Gospel of John, Jesus presents himself as the shepherd who cares for his sheep and is willing to give his life for them. This image tells us about God's unconditional love for us, his flock. In the Bible, we find several passages that tell us about the role of the pastor. In Psalm 23, the psalmist compares God to a shepherd who guides, protects, and provides for his people. In the book of Ezekiel, God is spoken of as the shepherd who searches for lost sheep and rescues them. It is important to remember that we are all sheep of the Lord. He knows us individually and is willing to go in search ofthose who have strayed from His fold. It is in his love and mercy that we find comfort and hope. 

We can reflect with a simple story about how a sheep doesn't respond to calls; they respond to Shepherds. A man in Australia was arrested for stealing a sheep, but he claimed that it was one of his own that had been missing for many days. When the case went to court, the judge was puzzled, not knowing how to decide the matter. At last, he asked that the sheep be brought into the courtroom. Then he ordered the plaintiff to step outside and call the animal. The sheep made no response except to raise its head and look frightened. The judge then instructed the defendant to go to the courtyard and call the sheep. When the accused man began to make his distinctive call, the sheep bounded toward the door. It was obvious that he recognized the familiar voice of his master. "His sheep know him," said the judge. "Case dismissed!"

The Lord is my shepherd. Psalm 23. There is no doubt that Psalm 23 is one of the favorites for generations of Christians around the world because reminders us about the existence of a Good Shepherd in God. All human beings throughout history have felt identified with the image of vulnerability and need for care, which is contained in this psalm. The pastoral landscape draws out in the text provides a clear description of a place full of green pastures to lie down, be led beside still water, to be comforted and restored in the soul, also be guided in the path of the righteousness even walking through the valley of the shadow of death, all these characteristic provides an ideal image of the place where all we want to live also reminds us the lost paradise described in Genesis where the first human being lived full of peace and joy until the sin entered into the human history.

In the Old Hebrew, the word nepes was used to call the effect to breath and to feel life in fullness as God did it in the beginning with the human being. God is more thana reference for the writer of the Psalm but is the source of the conviction and confidence that everything can be resolved and a new beginning could emerge during the worst condition as happened under Egyptian slavery, in the desert, or under the Babylonian domination. This song is about the confidence that Israel has in God as his Shepherd, the one who cares for him and protects him despite his behavior and his sins. 

The elements contained in the Psalm are simple; it is not a song about supranatural images, moreover, it is about the simplicity of daily life when people trust in God. Expressions such as table or sulhan, as the Old Hebrew refers to the gathering to share the bread, are then put in the Psalm as a place to bring together even the enemies, which was a deep understanding of the Hebrew culture in the Scriptures. The oil is also a representation of the calls coming from God, call to heal or to lead, depending on the circumstance, all is considered when God is overflowing the cup, or rewayah as is said in the Old Hebrew. The abundance is present in the song, and the joy coming from God is the conclusion, which means when God is the shepherd, all human beings can rest with the conviction that everything around is safe and good.

Jesus is the Good Shepherd, John 10. Weeks before, we had reflected on the personality of Jesus. Some people hoped a strong leadership based in human force and political power, others wanted to define himself as a religious leader full of charisma and spiritual gifts to guide the religiosity of the people, in general the expectation about the concrete implications of the Mesiah were huge and the tension provoked due His real power and His deep vocation in favor of the people were one of the challenge to resolve for His follower during His ministry and after His death and resurrection.

Jesus defined himself using different metaphors, but using the same Greek expression ego imi. Sometimes He defined Himself as the bread of life, others like the living bread, the light of the world, and one of the most relevant was His definition of Himself as the good shepherd. The Greek phrase ego imi is linked to the Old Testament phrase used to define God as the I am. The Septuagint version of the Old Testament highlighted this phrase. During His speech about Him as the good shepherd, Jesus mentioned some specific characteristic derivation of this definition.

He is the one who lays down his life for the sheep. This image is totally focused on the culture of the Middle East, where the breeding and care of small flocks or herds was used for wool exploitation and exchange or commerce. Jesus was thinking about the relation between personalities, combining the personality of the sheep, like a docile and vulnerable creature, the pastor as the responsible and protective,r and the wolf as the representation of evil and danger. The triangle of the three represents the daily life and the reality of the human being, but Jesus also warns about the existence of hired hands as a shepherd who is not committed to the sheep, as a clear reference to the religious context represented by the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees.

The relation between the good shepherd and the sheep is based on the Greek expression ginosko, which means an absolute and mutual recognition between both parties where one knows very well the other and intentional them cultivate a deep sense of understanding. It is clear, Jesus is going beyond a literal description about a simple herds, it is about how God decide to create a new relationship between Himself and the humanity based not in the rituals or practices but base in the clear understanding of the identity and acceptance also the recognition of the need to create a strong relationship which must be cultivate continuously and Jesus was the clear signal of God to be present in the middle of the people.

The other important image contained in the speech is related to the voice of the pastor, which is recognized by the sheep. A voice that is followed, a voice that calls to his loved creatures and is responded to by the sheep because of the sense of trust and confidence that it provokes for them. The speech insists on the idea of the voice calling to reiterate the mission contained in the relationships, because, as we mentioned before, the sheep is exposed to danger and, due to that,t it needs to be protected. The voice contains the message to hear and to follow when required, but not just any voice, but the voice of the good shepherd.

Jesus also uses this speech to announce God's proclamation that the call is not just for the Jews but for the entire humanity as part of the herd. Jesus represents the rest of humanity with the idea of the Gentiles when he says that there are other sheep outside of the herd that must be brought to the sheepfold. This idea closes the emphasis of Jesus about God like one for all the human being and not just but Jews or pharisees, Jesus announces the inclusion of the rest of the humanity in the mercy of God and Himself would offer His life in sacrifice for all the world in doesn't matter the race, the social condition even the sins, Jesus incarnates the God's love and Himself is committed with His mission consistent in die and be risen to proclaim the salvation and the forgiveness of sin in His name. This is exactly the incarnational mission of the Good Shepherd.

The image of the good shepherd also invites us to be shepherds in our own lives. We must care for others, offer them our support, and help them find the path to God. This implies being attentive to the needs of others and being instruments of peace and reconciliation. On this fourth Sunday of Easter, let us remember that Jesus is our good shepherd. He guides us, protects us, and loves us unconditionally. Let us follow in His footsteps and be generous shepherds in our daily lives. May His example inspire us to strengthen our faith and live in accordance with his teachings. Jesus fulfilled his promise to give his life for us on the cross. His death and resurrection have allowed us to be reconciled to God and have eternal life. Jesus shows us that true love involves sacrifice and total surrender. This example of sacrificial love also calls us to imitate Jesus in our daily lives. We must be willing to give up our own interests and comforts for the well-being of others. We must love our brothers and sisters as Jesus loved us, without conditions or reservations.

During the riots in Palestine in the middle thirties, a village near Haifa was condemned to collective punishment by having its sheep and cattle sequestrated by the Government. The inhabitants, however, were permitted to redeem their possessions at a fixed price. Among them was an orphan shepherd boy, whose six or eight sheep and goats were all he had in the world for life and work. Somehow, he obtained the money for their redemption. He went to the big enclosure where the animals were penned, offering his money to the British sergeant in charge. The soldier told him he was welcome to the requisite number of animals, but ridiculed the idea that he could pick out his "little flock" from among the confiscated hundreds. The little shepherd thought differently, because he knew better; and giving his own "call", for he had his nai (shepherd's pipe) with him, "his own" separated from the rest of the animals and trotted out after him. "I am the Good Shepherd and know my sheep, and am known of mine." Jesus talks about how His sheep recognize His voice and follow him. This teaches us the importance of being in tune with the voice of God in our lives.

​Through prayer, reading the Word of God, and contemplative life, we can learn to discern the voice of our Good Shepherd. It is essential to cultivate an intimate relationship with God to be able to recognize and follow his voice. In a world full of noise and distractions, it is easy to lose sight of God's voice. However, if we are attentive and open to his direction, he will guide us down the right path. Following the voice of the Good Shepherd means trusting in His wisdom and direction. Sometimes it can be difficult to understand God's will, but if we surrender to Him and allow Him to be our guide, we will discover that His way is best for us. In conclusion, the bible invites us to reflect on the love and care that God has for us, his flock. Jesus presents himself as the Good Shepherd who is willing to give his life for his sheep. We, as followers of Jesus, are also called to imitate his example of sacrificial love and to be in tune with his voice in our lives. 

36 Mientras ellos aún hablaban de estas cosas, Jesús se puso en medio de ellos, y les dijo: Paz a vosotros. 37 Entonces, espantados y atemorizados, pensaban que veían espíritu. 38 Pero él les dijo: ¿Por qué estáis turbados, y vienen a vuestro corazón estos pensamientos? 39 Mirad mis manos y mis pies, que yo mismo soy; palpad, y ved; porque un espíritu no tiene carne ni huesos, como veis que yo tengo. 40 Y diciendo esto, les mostró las manos y los pies. 41 Y como todavía ellos, de gozo, no lo creían, y estaban maravillados, les dijo: ¿Tenéis aquí algo de comer? 42 Entonces le dieron parte de un pez asado, y un panal de miel. 43 Y él lo tomó, y comió delante de ellos. ​44 Y les dijo: Estas son las palabras que os hablé, estando aún con vosotros: que era necesario que se cumpliese todo lo que está escrito de mí en la ley de Moisés, en los profetas y en los salmos. 45 Entonces les abrió el entendimiento, para que comprendiesen las Escrituras; 46 y les dijo: Así está escrito, y así fue necesario que el Cristo padeciese, y resucitase de los muertos al tercer día; 47 y que se predicase en su nombre el arrepentimiento y el perdón de pecados en todas las naciones, comenzando desde Jerusalén. 48 Y vosotros sois testigos de estas cosas.

How do beliefs work? How do we believe something? Beliefs are related to tradition and also evidence. Sometimes we believe because something was taught in a certain way, and others because the evidence is unquestionable. We are a community that believes in the same ideas about God and Jesus. The key point is, why do we believe it? Tradition or evidence? What kind of evidence do we need to believe? Empirical? Miracles? Signs, or can we just believe in the truth coming from the bible?
 
In 2018, an enterprise called YouGov asked the question: "Do you believe that the world is round or flat?" 84% of Americans indicated that they’ve always thought the world is round. But as the age of respondents decreased, the number of persons who were always sure the world is round dropped. While only 4% indicated they’d always believed the world is flat, a whopping 16% (highest of any age group) said, “Not sure.” In sum, 1 in 5 persons aged 18-24 indicated that they always thought the world was flat, or just weren’t sure. That's a lot of people. For some Flat Earthers, evidence of the earth’s shape may be found in the bible- more than half of Flat Earthers (52%) consider themselves very religious.
 
Talking about belief, we can cite the African Proverb which says: “A child that is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” Belief coming to us through different channels example: Marriage, it means when we get married we trend to assume a mutual belief about life, also our Family in general, I mean Kids assume their parents’ beliefs, also Friendship because being connected to others through a common interest we also assume beliefs, for sure the local Church, because being connected to other believers we share beliefs and doctrine and finally coming from others groups as school or University due connecting people and through educational process we receive beliefs not just information.
 
Followers of Jesus in the early church were asked to believe through the resurrection evidence. After Easter, the gospel recounts the appearances of Jesus. At first, in the first years after the death and resurrection of Jesus, Christians were concerned with defending the resurrection through apparitions. They were during the great appearance of the risen Jesus, but to the extent that the enemies' criticism of faith in the resurrection grew and, internally, criticism and debts arose regarding various functions in the communities (cf. 1Cor 1:12), they will begin to remember the appearances of Jesus. There are two types of apparitions in the gospel: (a) those that accentuate doubts and resistance of the disciples in believing in the resurrection, and (b) those that draw attention to Jesus' orders to the disciples, conferring upon them some mission. The first response to criticism from outside. They show that Christians are not naive and gullible people who accept anything. On the contrary. They had many doubts about believing in the resurrection. The others respond to criticism from within and base community functions and tasks not on the always debatable human qualities, but on the authority and orders received from the resurrected Jesus. The appearance of Jesus narrated in today's gospel combines two aspects: the disciples' debts and the mission to proclaim and forgive received from Jesus.
 
In Luke 24:35, we find the summary of Emmaus. Upon returning to Jerusalem, the two disciples found the community gathered and communicated the experience they had. They narrated what happened along the way and how they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread. The gathered community tells them, in turn, how Jesus appeared to Peter. It was a mutual sharing of the experience of resurrection, as happens to this day when communities come together to share and celebrate their faith, their hope, and their love.

In Luke 24:36-37, we find that the appearance of Jesus causes fear in the disciples. At this moment, Jesus becomes present among them and says, "Peace be with you!" It is Jesus' most frequent greeting: "Peace be with you!" (John 14,27; 16,33; 20,19.21.26). But the disciples, seeing Jesus, remain afraid. They are scared and do not recognize Jesus. Before them is the real Jesus, but they imagine that they are seeing a spirit, a ghost. There is a disagreement between Jesus of Nazareth and the resurrected Jesus. They can't believe it.
 
In Luke 24:38-40, we find Jesus helping them overcome fear and disbelief. Jesus does two things to help the disciples overcome fear and disbelief. He shows them his hands and feet, saying: "It is I!", and orders the body to be palpated, saying: "Because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." Jesus shows his hands and feet because the marks of the nails are on them (cf. Jn 20:25-27). The resurrected Christ is Jesus of Nazareth, the same one who was killed on the Cross, and not a ghost Christ as the disciples imagined seeing him. He ordered the body to be palpated because the resurrection is the resurrection of the whole person, body, and soul. The resurrection has nothing to do with the theory of the immortality of the soul, taught by the Greeks.
 
In Luke 24:41-43, we find another gesture to help them overcome disbelief. But it's not enough. Luke says that because of so much joy, they could not believe it. Jesus asks to be given something to eat. They gave him a piece of fish, and he ate in front of them to help them overcome the debt.
 
In Luke 24:44-47, we find a reading key to understand the new meaning of Scripture. One of the greatest difficulties of the first Christians was accepting a crucified person as the promised messiah since the law itself taught that a crucified person was "a cursed person of God" (Dt 21:22-23). Therefore, it was important to know that Scripture had already announced: "that Christ must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that conversion for the forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all nations." Jesus showed them that this was already written in the Law of Moses, in the prophets, and the Psalms. The risen Jesus, alive among them, becomes the key to unlocking the full meaning of Holy Scripture.
 
In Luke 24:48, we find the expression: You are witnesses of this. In this final order is the mission of Christian communities: to be witnesses of the resurrection, so that the love of God who welcomes us and forgives us is manifest and wants us to live in community as his sons and daughters, brothers, and sisters, one of them. others.
 
We are called to believe, as followers of Jesus, we face different trials for our faith, sometimes natural and clear enough, other times they are hidden under the dress of the circumstances. Our beliefs are required to keep our lives under God's providence and to live under His grace and love. Sometime is easier for people believe that the Earth is flat than the resurrection.

There is a mortal power in beliefs. I would like to illustrate it with a brief story. Jonestown, November 18, 1978, a location where the mass murder-suicide of members of the California-based Peoples Temple cult at the behest of their charismatic but paranoid leader, Jim Jones, occurred in the Jonestown agricultural commune, Guyana. The death toll exceeded 900, including some 300 who were age 17 and under, making the incident one of the largest mass deaths in American history. When people believe in the wrong manner or in error, the consequences can be devastating.
 
The bible shows us evidence about Jesus’ resurrection, which includes testimonies and facts, but we need to decide to believe it. Even though that sounds too simple, in general we can assume the faith as a tradition, as an influence, or as a belonging, and when the trials come to our lives, we face doubts and resistance to believe as the first followers of Jesus. Something as Thomas did, we demand evidence, and we just need to come to our own lives and check all the mercy and love that God has shown us through our existence. Even if we are sick now, God has taken care of us for a long time before. Even when we lost something, the truth is God has given us a lot of undeserved gifts, and Jesus has given us our salvation. Also, we can recognize the presence of Jesus in our lives through empirical evidence. For example, if we are weak, we can feel his hands giving us strength, we can identify His voice in the comfort coming from people around, and the Holy Spirit is guiding us in worship even when we are sad or experience loneliness. The peace given for Jesus comes to us as well as it did for the first follower in the early church.
 
We can come as a community to share the testimonies and be encouraged through the work God is doing through us, but also in others around us. We are a Witness Community; we have enough evidence to believe in Jesus as our savior, our healer, and our Lord. Jesus shows us His bounds and tells us the same that He said to the followers: it is I. He won over death to help us to overcome our fears and disbeliefs. His resurrection is the most important evidence of His power, so we can trust in Him as the conqueror over death. As Jesus ate the piece of fish to support the faith of His disciples before, now He gives us a lot of signs coming from the Holy Spirit to support our faith in the midst of our personal crisis. But also, Jesus points us to the Scriptures to come and verify all the coherence of God’s plan for our lives. Everything that has been written has also been accomplished to help us to believe in God’s love.
 
Then we are witnesses of everything about God’s kingdom, and because of that our mission is announce Jesus resurrection and the message of love offered by God for all human beings. We are witnesses of His resurrection, we are a community of believers that proclaim and support a mutual testimony of faith in such a way that when one is weak, the rest of the community comes to support him or her, when someone is happy, everyone celebrates together his or her joy. When we pray together, when we learn together, when we worship together, we build a sense of community which is one of the more appreciated values for a world full of loneliness, depression, and sadness, but in Jesus, we find joy and hope because He lives. 

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” 24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

​Everything in Christian life is about community, even God is a Trinitarian Community as we declare in our creed. The idea of a single faith full of individualism and selfishness is not coherent with the teachings of the bible, especially in the New Testament. One of the great differences about the structure of the Isarel and the Church, comparing the Old and the New Testament, is related to the sense of community developed for the first believers and the way that they changed the Jews tradition in a living experience with God through the community.
 
In the 3rd and 4th Centuries, and even to some extent today, the popular image of holiness was solitude, silence, and severity. The really (quote) "holy people" back then were those who lived like hermits, wandering in the desert alone -- fasting, praying, and having visions. Some of them went to extremes: eating nothing but grass, living in trees, or refusing to wash. Then Pachomius, an Egyptian soldier, came to faith in Christ through the witness of some Christians in Thebes. After his release from the military, around A.D. 315, he was baptized. Now, Pachomius was serious about his new faith and determined to grow, so he attached himself as a disciple of Palamon, an ascetic who taught him the self-denial and solitary life of a religious hermit. But Pachomius began to question the methods and lifestyle of his mentors. How can you learn to love if no one else is around? How can you learn humility living alone? How can you learn kindness or gentleness or goodness in isolation? How can you learn patience unless someone puts yours to the test? In short, he concluded, developing spiritual fruit requires being around ordinary, ornery people. "To save souls," he said, "you must bring them together." So Pachomius began to gather people together in communities where holiness was developed not in isolation, but in rubbing shoulders with flawed, demanding, and sometimes disagreeable people. As a result, followers of Pachomius learned to take hurt rather than give it. They discovered that disagreements and opposition provide the opportunity to redeem life situations and experience God's grace. Thus began the monastic movement in the 4th Century.
 
According to evangelical tradition, the appearance of the Risen Lord to the group of gathered disciples plays a fundamental role in the existence and future of the ecclesial community. John has unfolded the story into two episodes. The first (20, 19-23) follows the tripartite scheme of the appearance stories: Jesus, (a) who takes the initiative, (b) he recognizes the disciples, and (c) he entrusts them with a mission. It presents certain analogies with Luke's story, but it also has notable differences: much more sober, it does not have the same apologetic tendency; The gift of the Holy Spirit is not only announced but effectively communicated. The second episode (20, 24-29), typical of John, concentrates on the character of Thomas, the doubt before the Risen One that was mentioned in the Lucan story, but it is to lead to a Christological proclamation of a disciple and a word from Jesus destined to the believers of the future. The first Christian communities were portrayed in the ideal profile that the evangelist Luke drew of them in the book of Acts of the Apostles.
 
The text is based on three factors: the personality reflected by Thomas as an image of the believers for the present and for the future, the testimony of the resurrection of Jesus, and the sending of the disciples. Thomas appears as a representation of all the believers throughout the history of Christianity, requiring evidence of the faith even for Jesus. The encounters of Jesus with his disciples provoke the reaction in them of surprise, joy, and doubt. Is it possible? The little group debated between skepticism and faith; Thomas represented the group; even the rest of them kept silence, the difference between the attitude of Thomas and the disciple who in the sepulcher decided to believe is the situation of the church around the world. Every time we are challenged to believe, we are in the same situation as Thomas. The tradition of the story of Thomas highlighted the idea of touching to say, only is possible to believe that we experience through our senses, this is our human limitation, but the divine reality of God is superior to ourselves.
 
The gospel of John shows us through the figure of Thomas the path of faith that led that generation of Christians to contact the resurrected One. Thomas's faith was reduced to what he thought should be reality rather than what he saw. Tomas perceived how the lives of his brothers and sisters in the community were transformed by contact with the resurrected One.
 
Those who previously closed themselves off out of fear and hid from the authorities now openly undertake new works and missions. However, Tomás did not see it because all reality was limited to his poor immediate experience. The community had made a significant journey through a process of conciliation that had taken them from despair, guilt, and inconstancy towards a new way of relating in 'the peace of Christ'; When Thomas experienced the nails, wounds, and sores of Jesus in his flesh, he did not understand the salvific meaning of the resurrection. Tomas, after his encounter with the resurrected One, felt saved from his human smallness, his lack of understanding, and his lack of mental and emotional openness. For Thomas, salvation had passed through his own body.
 
The second aspect is about the testimony of resurrection; it was required for the first believer to sustain the idea of Jesus resurrected, then there was no doubt about all the signs that followed the resurrection, but all of them in community. A small community was witness of marvelous fact, as promised, Jesus was raised from the depth and the story was spread around the corners of Jerusalem and beyond. The gospel of John highlights the contradiction between apistos-pistos to believe or not believe.
 
Jesus’ living is demanding from Thomas and all his followers to believe in His resurrection because His signs, that is just comparable to the miracles narrated in the Exodus Book, were performed by God in favor of the Israelites. Through this passage, a new tradition was raised for the Christian community, as was taught in the Old Testament, which is now taught through oral tradition and through the first Christian community. Christ was raised from the tomb, and He lives. The third aspect of the text is in relation to the action of sending. Jesus appeals with authority to His followers to go beyond Jerusalem, being full of the Holy Spirit, they must take the message of His death and His resurrection through the villages and the world. A lot of people will be blessed by them because of His message, and they will believe in His resurrection. Other people will come to believe, and nations will come to the gospel of Jesus, thanks to the proclamation. This was the mandate that the disciples received from Jesus.
 
The first communities were born under the sign of the total community. The disciples of Jesus understand, from the resurrection, that their destiny is irremediably linked to the same options of Jesus, and they embark on a path of communion and total solidarity. The communities, despite sharing everything, show reluctance when it comes to accepting those who are of the same race. The church of Jerusalem resisted, at first, full communion with Christians from nationalities other than the Jewish one. The first community was perceived as Authentic Israel, not only explicitly from a theological point of view, but, above all, practically from a racial point of view. Therefore, it became necessary not only to transform economic knowledge but also to overcome cultural barriers.
 
We live in the era of the Social Community and in the Era of communications. New technologies make it possible to keep in touch and help us to find information even for the stranger aspect of human life. There are professional experts called community manager specialists in the creation of content to keep a virtual presence. The awareness of the Christian community was increasingly gained, and openness and adaptability were developed in all cultures.
 
In one community, the Village atheist was not a bad man. He just didn't believe. He wasn't interested in church...and there was only one in the area. And this church was, well, mostly a social club. Heartlessly and spiritually dead, no conversions or decisions for Christ had been made for some time. One day, the church building literally caught on fire, and everyone, the whole town, ran toward to help extinguish the flames...including the village atheist! Someone noticed the village atheist and hollered out: "Hey, this is something, this is the first time we've ever seen you running to church!" The atheist replied, "This is the first time I've ever seen the church on fire!"
 
The centrality of the kingdom of God was thematized in other ways in Greek, African, and Roman environments. For this reason, we began to speak of 'salvation' as the objective of the Christian faith. We must be careful because this change of terms did not lose the substance of the Christian faith centered on the imminent emergence of the reign of God. This was understood in the gospel as the definitive presence of God's will in human organizations so that through commitment, honesty, and effectiveness of action, God's justice became a reality in the human community. If salvation is spoken of, it was not in purely sectarian and individual terms, but as the vital experience of the realization of that hope that Jesus had made possible through his life, death, and resurrection. The communities discovered the importance of charting a path in faith that adapted to their new realities. Christians from the second generation onwards did not have any type of physical contact with the Lord Jesus; their starting point was the testimony of those who became listeners and servants of the Word. This is why the text of the First Letter of Peter places so much emphasis on the values of the community that he loves without having seen it.