In our lectionary, the Sunday after Easter always brings the story of Thomas from the gospel of John. It’s a great passage, not just because Jesus acknowledges Thomas’s doubts, but because we get to “see” Jesus, too. John reminds us the resurrection doesn’t magically erase Jesus’s wounds – or the pain, suffering and trauma of the past. Instead Jesus keeps on showing up, impossibly, bearing witness to a life stronger than his trauma.

Easter doesn’t erase Jesus’s suffering, nor does it erase ours, as much as I sometimes wish it would. The resurrection reminds us that Jesus does show up, that life has a power stronger than we imagined.

As we prepare for Holy Week, news coverage of recent mass shootings, describing the Atlanta and Boulder shootings as evidence of “return to normal” has left me sick to my stomach. No one wants this “normal.”

This week’s mission alert from the PC(USA) Office for Public Witness decries gun violence. We must continue to support policies, legislation, and corporate actions that limit accessibility to automatic weapons and other firearms. We must also remember that policies and legislation do not hold all the answers to the problems of this “normal.”