Jesus said, “So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing”. Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God.
(John 20: 29 – 31)

The Christian quality of mercy shows in how the apostles healed the sick and suffering who came to them. Christian disciples ever since have carried on that mission, and it’s going on right now in places like Nogales, Mexico. There the border with the United States is only a few paces – and also a security apparatus of fences, cameras, and guards – away. Also there: a small building where Missionary Sisters of the Eucharist welcome and feed thousands of migrants deported from the United States each year. Some of those arrive with injuries from nights crossing the Sonoran Desert. Others have been forcibly removed from life in the United States, without money, a phone, or a full set of clothing. Their ticket of admission is their documented record of rejection. “No one can be admitted without their deportation paper,” Sister Alma Delia said to the crowd.

Their work offers a lesson: “I believe the church is living a moment of crisis,” Sister Rosalba Avalos Ramos told Kevin Douglas Grant in the GlobalPost. “The church needs to be transformed and live out a more radical commitment to the most needy. If we’re really trying to follow the way of Jesus, there’s a lot of his path that we need to pick up again and start living”.

There’s an old pop standard that begins, “I’ll be seeing you, in all the old familiar places”. It’s a classic song because it evokes the many layers of meaning of the phrase “I’ll be seeing you”. And as the Easter season plays out, we observe that the disciples “see” Jesus in all the old familiar places – when they gather together, when they break bread, when they preach the Good News, and when they heal the sick. And that’s where we will see Jesus, too – in all the old familiar places that God reaches out to people.