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Jesus peace be with you1/20/2024 ![]() ![]() It reminds us that the Resurrected Jesus lives and acts through his followers. The scene here is a simple description of what began to happen in Jerusalem, once the disciples-now-become-apostles start to let the Holy Spirit flow through them. If you’ve followed the story all Easter week of how Peter said to the lame man lying by the Beautiful Gate, “Silver and gold have I none, but, in the name of Jesus Christ, get up and walk,” it is easy to understand why, in today’s passage, people are carrying their sick out into the street in hopes that Peter’s shadow will fall on them-and cure them. The first reading from Acts takes place three of four months after Jesus’ Resurrection. His words of mercy have the power of God–as do his calls to his disciples. The sweet and gentle Jesus of Divine Mercy is also the Alpha and the Omega. This passage was written about a third of the way between the time of Jesus’ Resurrection (33 AD) and the Council of Nicea (325 AD, when when the Church officially said, “We understand that the Jesus who was raised from the dead was both God and human.” For us, today, it is a reminder that this great Truth of our faith emerged over time. I hold the keys to death and the netherworld.” Once I was dead, but now I am alive forever and ever. I am the first and the last, the one who lives. The voice is commanding, “Write what you see.” Even the reassurance has a strong tone of authority, “Do not be afraid. The picture of Jesus here is not a comfortable one. This is a God’s eye view of the world he saved and loves to this day. It seems better to see this as a picture of Jesus in his Glory. We can say, “That was for Christians under persecution years ago” or “This is a puzzle to decipher about what the end of the world will be like.”Ĭommentators and scholars encourage us not to get lost in all that. It is easy to get lost in the images of Revelation or in its prophecies and predictions. Today’s reading is the beginning of that vision. John, the apostle, has been exiled to the island of Patmos. It is about the year 90 AD, a time of persecution of Christians. ![]() In Cycle C, the second reading during the Easter season comes from Revelation. ![]() We can separate ourselves from it through sin, but we are marked with the indelible mark of God’s life in us. It is an eternal flame of God’s love that never goes out. He marked our souls with it the day we were baptized. Jesus, through the Divine Mercy this Sunday celebrates, finds us and gives us his Presence, which carries with it his Peace.Īnd God gives us the Holy Spirit, too. It is the peace of knowing no matter where we are in life, God comes through the locked doors of our fears and finds us to let us know he has gifts of himself for us. ![]() Jesus says: “Peace be with you.” This is not a “ six o’clock and all’s well” kind of peace. If I put myself in that upper room with my 21 st century ordinary lay life, already believing in the Resurrection of the body, there is another message. Yet, for me today, there is something more personal. We know this Gospel also tells of Thomas’ doubting as a way to help us see that doubts need not trouble us God can use them to bring us to deeper faith, for from his doubts Thomas came to say, “ My Lord and my God!” We know Jesus came to the disciples and said, “Peace be with you.” We know it represents when Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Penance as he gave the disciples-becoming-apostles the gift of the Holy Spirit and the ability to forgive sins. John 20:19-21ĮVERY year on the second Sunday of Easter we have this Gospel. They did not expect him to be able to conquer death. They did not interpret “Son of God” to mean God Himself. Even though they believed that Jesus was the Messiah and even though he had told them again and again that he would suffer, die, and rise again, the piece of information they were missing was that Jesus was and IS God. Life has radically changed for them, and they are in a state of disorientation. It can help us appreciate how hard it was for the disciples to truly BELIEVE Jesus rose from the dead or to be at peace with change. Remembering times of disorientation from change is a good lens for viewing this Sunday’s readings. There is nothing to do but to keep on keeping on until time reorients us to a new normal. Our minds both wander and review again and again.Īll these symptoms of the need to process change disturb us. Sometimes we lose time-hours pass and we can’t account for what we’ve thought or done. It is especially clear when the change includes grief. When that happens, we go through a period of disorientation. If you’ve lived very long at all, you can count several times when something happened and life was forever different. We take a new job or lose one we’ve had for years. We’ve all had times in our lives when EVERYTHING CHANGES. ![]()
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