Luke 24:36b-48        Jesus himself stood among the disciples and their companions and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, "Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, "Have you anything here to eat?" They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things."

Reflection         There is a lot of confusion about Pre-Easter Jesus and Post-Easter Christ. Pre-Easter Jesus walked with the disciples and entered rooms through open doors. Post-Easter Christ appears among his disciples, even though the doors of the room are shut or locked. Pre-Easter Jesus is known by the physical senses and readily recognized. Post-Easter Christ is known by spiritual realization, the mysterious opening of our eyes and our minds to recognize Christ present in strangers and our selves.

In other words, Post-Easter Christ arises from within when the disciples are gathered, thinking about Pre-Easter Jesus, talking about him, remembering him. Post-Easter Christ emerges as peace, peace that arises from the depths of our being, peace that surpasses our understanding and supplants everything else. 

This is the peace Pre-Easter Jesus left for all of us when he said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.”(John 14.27-28)

Although Pre-Easter Jesus must go away (after all he is mortal), he leaves his peace with us, the unspeakable peace which is the calling card of Post-Easter Christ. This is how Post-Easter Christ makes himself known to us, by the peace that arises within and among us when things are frightening, chaotic or as bad as they can be. 

Pre-Easter Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…”  Post-Easter Christ fulfills the blessing, being the peace that unseats all else. 

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Missing posts & the "text" of life ...

Dear friends,

If you have noticed a lapse in my commenting and posting of Gospel texts the last two weeks- you are spot on. I was called to a family emergency which I am very grateful to report is resolving in healing and hope.

Looking over the text of my life these past eleven days I notice an amazing amount of grace in the midst of serious trauma and upheaval. It makes me think of our June 20th text. Jesus, the harbinger of peace and love and light showed up on the scene of what can only be described as utter chaos and suffering. Remember how Jesus arrived in the country of the Gerasenes and found the man who was tormented by a legion of spirits, whose life was so utterly out of control that he was exiled from his community? Did you notice that Jesus did not turn away from him even though in doing so he broke every social convention? Jesus looked straight at the suffering and named the demons that tormented the man. And in ways that are more mysterious than I can begin to fathom, in the power of the Spirit, the demons came out of the man, and were replaced by peace and calm.

It occurs to me that one way in which we may encounter Jesus' Holy Spirit is by looking straight at the suffering around us and engaging it. These past eleven days I witnessed my daughter and her husband be overwhelmed by trauma, look straight into it's face and engage it. With the support of faithful people, compassionate professionals and the grace of the ever present Spirit of our Lord, peace and healing were called out of the chaos.

May we all have the courage to look into the face of suffering and recognize therein the grace of the Spirit. Debra