2nd Sunday of Easter – Divine Mercy Sunday

 

“Peace be with you.”

 

There was once a group of people just like us who were Catholics and had a small church in a small village. In that village the majority of the people were not churchgoers or religious people but they were prepared to tolerate what they saw as these strange Christian people. However, one day the sheriff decided that he would challenge these Catholics to a real test of their faith. He and several of the men and women of the village burst into the church one Sunday, walked right up to the front and spoke directly to the priest: “If your Jesus Christ is as great as you think he is, then we want you to drink this bottle of deadly poison and we will see what Jesus does for you in return.” The people in the congregation were terrified and they shuddered with fear. The priest thought for a moment and then he asked the sheriff if he could have a quick parish council meeting in the sacristy. The sheriff agreed and off they went, the priest and the parish council.

A few minutes later the sacristy door swung open and out came the priest and the parish council members. The sheriff addressed them, saying, “Well, are you going to drink the poison or not?” The priest looked at the sheriff and said, “We are so confident in the power of Jesus that we want you to drink the poison, so that when you drop dead, we can raise you to new life.”

 

All of us have probably, at some point in our lives, been in a situation where we have been afraid. The disciples are exactly the same as us; in today’s Gospel account we find that the disciples are afraid and have locked themselves away in a room. It may be partly that they remember how they were terrified at the time of Jesus’ passion, and they all let the Lord down and ran away. Now they are hearing that Jesus is alive from the dead; if it’s true, what will he have to say to them? Perhaps they are thinking that Jesus might have good reason to come back to the disciples in

a foul mood: “Where were you when I needed you, how could you have run away, did you not promise that you would die for me?” However, Jesus is the giver of peace and the communicator of peace. Now risen and alive, his first words to the disciples are, “Peace be with you.”

 

Maybe Jesus realises that the disciples are confused and have not really taken in his gift of peace, and so he says for a second time, “Peace be with you.” This is something for us all to take to heart. Jesus is speaking the same words of peace to us. This peace is not some peace of human origin, but comes from the prince of peace. With the peace of Jesus gifted to us, we can be people at peace with ourselves, at peace with the Lord himself; and then become people of peace in our world, which truly needs peace.

 

It is easy to imagine Thomas’ disbelief when the disciples tell him their incredible story. We today often call him “Doubting Thomas”, as if we are thinking that we would have done much better than poor Thomas. But Thomas had witnessed the horror of the passion of Jesus. Many of us would have reacted in exactly the same way as Thomas does in this Gospel passage. So Jesus again comes among the disciples one week later, and this time they are all there, Thomas included. What, once again, are the first words out of Jesus’ mouth? As the prince of peace, he says, “Peace be with you.” After Thomas and Jesus have a catch-up, Thomas says, “My Lord and my God!” Thomas has the privilege of being in the presence of our living Lord and he is inspired to salute Jesus in this way: “My Lord and my God!”

 

Today, as we continue to be an Easter people, with alleluia as our song, let us take the peace of Jesus deep into our lives and let us be true ambassadors of the Lord, taking his peace into the world. Let us be like Thomas and humbly yet joyfully salute our risen Lord with his beautiful words: “My Lord