Consider for a moment that the house in today’s gospel as a metaphor for our hearts. Perhaps we find that the doors of our hearts are locked as tightly as were the disciples’ doors that “evening of the day of Resurrection.” Maybe it is fear of the unknown, anxiety about what may happen next when the other shoe falls, or perhaps anger, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness for some perceived slight, or maybe grief for some overwhelming loss that has caused us to lock away our hearts to protect them from the pain of the world. Or maybe, like Thomas, we’re just not at home; whatever it is, we have shut ourselves off from the comfort that God has in store for us.

The good news from our gospel today is that our locked doors are not a barrier to the presence of the risen Lord. The “Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,” sees the distress in our hearts and Christ Jesus comes bringing peace, joy, and the presence of the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. Our Holy Trinity of love and power does not leave us comfortless, even in the prisons of our own making. Whatever healing is required, whatever signs of the reality of his presence that we may need to enable us to unlock the doors of our hearts, the Lord provides in abundance with the light of his love, with the life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit, bringing us back into fellowship with him and one another.

Once we feel the chains on our hearts dropping away, when we experience our locked doors swinging open, we will be free and ready to join with Thomas in his joyous acclamation of recognition and thanksgiving: “My Lord and my God!”