Reflection for the Second Sunday of Easter

Every now and then a television advert airs that does more than just sell us something — in 30 seconds, it portrays an authentic truth about the life we live. A commercial I saw recently on a video sharing platform for a Jeep is just such a moment.

In it a dad is packing up his belongings from his Jeep to pass the vehicle on to his college-bound daughter. As he packs, he notices the scratch on the roof he made while trying to drive under a low-hanging tree limb; the rip in the rear seat upholstery caused by the family dog the day they brought it home; and the dent in the rear door made by his fiancée when she excitedly ran into his arms crying

Yes! the day he proposed. For him, the dents and scratches and tears are markers of his family’s life. Now he passes that legacy on to his daughter for her to make her own memories.

The commercial ends with the words: “There are no dents or scratches. Only memories.”

Our lives are filled with scratches and dents, bruises and tears — and nail marks. Those scars teach us and define us: they teach us how to cope and conquer life’s biggest challenges and changes; they remind us of what is of value and of worth in life; they reveal to us every day what is truly worth sacrificing and “bleeding” for. Our nail marks — our “dents and scratches” — assure us that in God’s love and peace we can transform pain and grief, ridicule and suffering into experience of resurrection. This Second Sunday of Easter celebrates the scars from our own Good Fridays that remain after our own struggles to grow in wisdom and grace. As Thomas and his brothers come to realize in today’s Gospel, our “dents” and “scratches” are lasting signs of God’s compassion, forgiveness and justice in our lives, “nail marks” of the healing and resurrection we have experienced and have made possible for others by the crosses we have taken up in the spirit of Jesus.

To View the commercial – click the following image.