2nd Sunday of Easter B - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2009

I love this Gospel passage. Each time I talk about it, I get excited myself.

The risen Jesus appeared to the disciples - to the ten of them (Judas had left the group, and Thomas was apparently absent).

These were the ones who had been so deeply loved by Jesus, the ones he had, not long before, called his friends, the ones who meant so much to him. Yet, in the face of danger, they had deserted him. One of them, Peter, had repeatedly denied having anything to do with him, having even known him.

The first words of the murdered and risen Jesus to them were: Peace be with you. And his second words to them were: Peace be with you. Not a word of recrimination - as though their desertion was now irrelevant – not forgotten, just irrelevant.

He simply wished them peace. He simply yearned that they be at peace – these deserters.

What incredible bigness of heart. What incredible freedom. What incredible love.

Yet, is it incredible? Isn't genuine love always unconditional and unmerited? We might struggle to get anywhere near that - but we know in our heart of hearts that that's the way true love is.

If God doesn't forgive, God doesn't love. If God does not love, God is not God.

Then Jesus went on to tell them - these deserters - that he trusted them, that he relied on them. He sent them out to carry on the same mission that had been the sole focus of his whole life: As the Father sent me, so am I sending you. “Show the world what God is like! Show the world what I am like!”

He breathed on them - as the creating God had breathed on the clay in the garden of Eden, and made of it the first, the essential Adam, the man, the truly human being.

There's a new creative energy abroad in the world!

Then he said: Forgive! Reveal the heart of God!

Forgiveness is the shape that, sadly, love has to take in our world. Is there any human relationship - even beautiful human relationship - without its mixture of self-interest?

And since forgiveness is the real crunch test of love - that's the message.

And the only ones who can preach that with any credibility, and who can witness to that with any passion, must themselves, firstly, be sinners.

We qualify for that, sadly - or is it wonderfully?

Can you hear the risen Christ saying to you: Peace be with you? Can you let yourself hear the risen Christ say to you: Peace be with you? Before you get yourself into any sort of shape?

Unless you can hear him, you're useless.

But, and this is my final point: it's OK to find it difficult, to doubt.

Thomas did. And the first thing that the risen Jesus said to Thomas, who struggled to believe forgiveness, was: Peace be with you!