‘Peace be with you’
"Peace be with you: Doubt no longer but believe"
Fr. Gareth’s homily on the Octave of Easter, Divine Mercy Sunday, 19 April 2020
Acts 2: 42-47; I Peter 1: 3-9; John 20: 19-31
The doors were closed where the disciples were. The apostles, and the other disciples closest to Jesus, and Mary his mother, were afraid. We know this story and yet this Easter as we read it there is new power in it because we are all behind closed doors, and we know what it is to be afraid.
It wasn’t strange that Thomas and the other disciples should have been worried at this stage. Jesus their great friend and teacher, the Son of God, who had promised them a whole new way of life, had been killed on the Cross. Thomas did not dare to believe the others when they said they had seen the Lord.
In normal times we find death hard enough to understand. In these times, with death and sadness all around, with stories from other countries, and now from our own, about how the Covid-19 pandemic has gripped the world, we have had to allow ourselves to feel the despair, and fear, and worry that has laid hold of us.
Interestingly though, as I walk around the parish, and how lucky we are to have so much available to us within 2kms, and thinking too of those who are cocooned behind closed doors and can’t come out, many people have stopped me to chat (from a safe 2m distance) about the webcam, for instance, and how they are participating in Masses from home, and how they have found it calming and uplifting. They had never done this before, and they miss coming to Holy Communion, but they are there. You are there. You have told me that you are very engaged, and grateful for the opportunity to touch into the deepest things, and feel Jesus present in a new way, at home and with your loved ones.
Jesus is the light of our lives. He is risen from the dead, and when we know him present he says to us: ‘Peace be with you.’ ‘Peace be with you Thomas.’ Peace be with you Mary, John, Pat, Sheila, Joe, Helen, Linda, Anne, Gareth, David, Aoife… ‘Peace be with you…’
In a time of turmoil, in a way Thomas represents us all. In his humanity, in his weakness he expresses the doubts and uncertainties which test our faith from time to time. Sometimes we are strong, believing is not a problem… but we know that faith, hope and love can be real challenges for us along the road too.
Strange as it might see, we have been given this moment on our journey to stop and reflect on life. In the midst of despair we have the possibility too of quietening ourselves, and finding time for reflection and prayer …to hear what the Lord has to say – ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so am I sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit.’
Today is also Mercy Sunday, and we thank God for the small mercies he has given us in our lives. We find ourselves blessed, like Thomas, by a God who loves us with an everlasting love. ‘My Lord and my God’ we say, with Thomas, as we recognise that Jesus is with us, is always present to us.
Our hope is, heightened even more so now, that we can respond, in his image, by being compassionate to others just as we have felt his compassion for us. Compassionate towards those on the edge, those suffering, those seeking to understand and searching for hope. As we reflect on how we would like to be in the future we can give ourselves time now, in this present, while we have it, to listen to what Jesus is saying to us, asking of us.
Don’t run away into new ways of being busy. Take this time behind closed doors as a gift. Like Thomas, we can create a new life on the other side of all this.
For now let the light of Christ be your light, and allow the water of Baptism into the life of Christ cleanse you, refresh you and renew you for the new life Christ is inviting you into, here and now, with him and with each other, and on into life eternal:
‘Give me your hand. Doubt no longer, but believe.’