2nd Sunday of Easter Peace be with you! Jesus, the one who was abandoned, and denied by his disciples in his hour of need returns to them from the dead, announcing ‘Peace’! But as he does so he shows the disciples the wounds of his appalling death. How could he do this? Wouldn’t a person forgiving ignore what had happened and say “Let’s move on from here?” But the risen Jesus stills bares the marks of what human sinfulness had done to him. Seeing Jesus, seeing those scars, the disciples are filled with joy. Thomas, not there, makes seeing those scars the test by which he will believe in Jesus. Just what is so important about Jesus’ scars? They tell us that he has embraced everything that happened in his terrible death, all the sin and hatred, and transformed it in the love of God. We simply find this impossible to understand. Only with the gift of the Spirit can we believe and, as it was to the disciples, so it is to us, a source of joy. But the key to belief is to go and do the same. As Jesus was sent by the Father, so he sends us….to forgive. This is the sign of the Christian: forgiving within marriages, families, in the local community, in the workplace. But how are we to forgive? Forgiving is not forgetting. We, too, bear our scars, and we, who have sinned, need to recognise some of the consequences of what we have done. But forgiving is not paying back or exacting vengeance, either – that is the sinful way of dealing sin. What I know from my experience is that every situation is unique. To forgive and to be forgiven, we really do need the Holy Spirit. Each of us can think of situations in our lives that need forgiveness. To deal with these, we need to pray deeply, think honestly about what caused the situation (knowing that we will never work it all out), imagine creatively ways of healing and change, and then wait for the moment of Spirit to step forward into forgiveness. And when that happens we will be channels of God’s peace.
Sr Kym Harris OSB |