My Brothers and Sisters
From my Pastoral experience and observations, when one is faced with tragedy including death, one of the things most needed is peace. Jesus understood this very well. In the gospel appointed for today (Luke 24: 36-53), Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples who were in hiding in a room, talking with the two disciples who had encountered the Risen Christ on their way to Emmaus. In the midst of their terror, uncertainty, failures, and doubts, Jesus appeared and bestowed His peace on them: “Peace be with you!”
While peace is an important dimension of the text, the main focus of today’s gospel is that Jesus presented to the startled disciples three different pieces of evidence that He was risen from the dead.
Jesus first invited the disciples to “touch and see,” in order to confirm with their senses what their minds could not accept. Further, another piece of evidence of the physical bodily resurrection, is that Jesus then took food and ate with them. The final proof was revealed in and through scripture as Jesus opened their minds to understand scripture as being fulfilled in Him.
Towards the end of the encounter Jesus commissioned the disciples to the preaching of repentance and the forgiveness of sins for all nations as they witnessed the resurrection. It is important to note that the Resurrection is inextricably linked not only to the study of scripture, but also to the engagement in mission, so resurrection and mission belong together.
The church like the disciples is given a mission to witness to the world of the redemptive activity of God in Jesus the Christ. It is called to proclaim the Good News of forgiveness and reconciliation, and the hope of newness that is given voice in the resurrection itself. It is a grand vision of being God’s people, God’s agents of transformation in the world.
The fact of the Resurrection informs our personal relationships, as well as our relationships with family, friends, church brothers and sisters, which ought to be transformational and transforming in nature.
The video making the rounds of a woman being abused is to be condemned. The church has a responsibility to be vigilant in its outcry in such situations, as the fourth mark of mission states, “To transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and pursue peace and reconciliation.” Additionally, one of the objects of the Mothers’ Union speaks to this kind of advocacy
Even within churches, women and children may experience abuse, therefore we must pray for the insight and will to condemn these actions and develop strategies to address the situation. Additionally we must pray for both the victim and the abuser because both need help – the abuser to have a change of heart and seek forgiveness, and the abused to experience love and the ability to forgive. It is our hope that reconciliation and the peace of the Resurrected Lord may be experience by both and all involved.
Peace be with you! Yours in Peace,
Patrick+
