2nd Sunday of Easter B - Homily 5

 Homily 5 - 2018

“The doors were closed in the room where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews”. Their fear was real, perhaps even close to panic, but that was not all. They were totally confused by the news of the empty tomb. John believed, but the rest could not make sense of it. They felt disillusioned, and guilty – perhaps even angry at themselves, or even at the absent Jesus.

“Jesus came and stood among them. He said to them, ‘Peace be with you’.” What did that say about Jesus? To me it says that he was obviously quite at peace himself, at peace, too, with these men who were truly guilty – still. How could he be at peace after they had totally let him down? How could he be so much at peace himself that he wanted them to share his peace? Ultimately it reflects his usual stance towards others. He loved people, because that was the way he was. He loved everyone, anyone, just as they were – innocent, guilty; cowardly, brave – consistently, unconditionally. And in this context of their guilt, loving meant forgiving. In place of fear, guilt and confusion, peace filled their hearts, and with that peace, love, forgiveness and joy. What an evening!

Despite their breakdown and obvious inadequacies, Jesus continued to trust them, indeed, to entrust them, with what was most precious to him, his mission. “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you!” And to make that mission quite clear, he handed on to them the Spirit that enlivened him, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love, and drew them into what he saw as his mission –his work of forgiveness above all and his persistent and insistent welcoming of sinners. [And here I use a translation different from the one most of us are used to], “The people whom you forgive the sins of are forgiven; the people whom you keep hold of in community are held in community”. The incident with Thomas that followed illustrated that last point. Though he refused to believe when the other disciples told him that Jesus was indeed raised, Thomas was not excluded from the community. There is place within the Christian community for sinners and doubters. It was there within the community of disciples that Thomas encountered Jesus, and there within the community that Jesus led him gently to faith.

We are familiar with the image of Jesus as the Lamb of God, the innocent victim killed as the means to the nation’s liberation. Meaningful as the image is, and it is a great reminder of the centrality of non-violence in response to violence in the pursuit of the Church’s mission, it is nevertheless inadequate. The more significant thing about Jesus’ death and resurrection is that he returns among us as the always-forgiving innocent victim. Forgiveness sums up the very essence of the Church’s mission, and non-violence is its necessary means.

When we allow ourselves truly to mature, we realise that to live fully is to love and forgive, and to love and forgive are the only way to live fully. As we leave childhood and adolescence behind, we also realise that adult love and forgiveness are necessarily unconditional. At the same time, we realise there can be no place for, and we let go of, our ideas of an “angry God”.

When we truly allow the peace and joy of the risen Christ to saturate our every fibre, we necessarily operate non-violently. The Church has been on the road for two thousand years, yet we have still not learnt the ways of peace. Peace has not become our default option. It distresses me that our own nation does not prioritise the skills of peace-making in a section of the world that is crying out for truly competent peace-makers, and instead chooses to support the further development of the local arms industry.

“Peace be with us” indeed!