“Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
Jesus is speaking to you.
When John, last week, entered the tomb and saw the head cloth folded and put neatly aside, he believed that Jesus had risen from the dead even though he did not see Jesus.
When the disciples at Emmaus witness Jesus blessing and breaking bread just as He did at the Last Supper, they realized it was Him even after He vanished from their sight, even though they had not recognized Him earlier: even though they did not see Jesus.
Peter could not believe; Mary Magdalene could not believe; Thomas could not believe. They demanded to see Him first. Yet the joy of John and the disciples at Emmaus were all the more blessed because their mourning died in the light of faith well before anyone else saw Jesus. Jesus had been, by their faith, always with them.
What about you? Have you seen the body of Jesus? No: then you have “seen” what John saw, he who believed in the Resurrection because of what he did not see. You have seen the Eucharist; you have seen the same bread and have heard the same words those at Emmaus did. Do you see Jesus there in the Blessed Sacrament; do you see Him at Mass? Do you believe that He is risen from the dead even though you do not see, smell, taste or feel Him? Yet we hear His Word: this is my Body…this is my Blood. Do you believe Him, trusting that one remaining sense—your hearing—through which, according to St. Paul, faith comes? “…faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ,” (Romans 10:17)! And thus we walk by faith, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7): “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.”
We have seen all that John and our brothers at Emmaus saw: do we believe as they believed?