Peace be with you

Homily: Cultivating Peace
(Luke 24:36-42)

The reading for today comes at the end of the gospel of Luke. It is one of the stories of the resurrection, after the women found the empty tomb, and after Jesus had made himself known in the breaking of the bread in the road to Emmaus story. Now these Emmaus disciples have returned to the others in Jerusalem and they are telling their news to each other - the Lord is risen indeed.

And as they were saying this, Jesus himself stood among them, offering peace. Peace was proclaimed at Jesus' birth. He preached peace in his life. Now, at the end he offers peace to his frightened disciples.

They were not just frightened at seeing him. The events of the last few days would have weighed heavily on their hearts. Had they been fools to have believed in him? Were their lives in danger as well? How could they have abandoned and denied their friend? What did all this mean?

And yet Jesus - the who had been abandoned, denied, betrayed, flogged, mocked and crucified - this same Jesus is the one now offering peace to his troubled and frightened disciples.

He was not greeting them with an angry tirade, but with peace.
He was not speaking threats of murder and revenge, but peace.
He was not laying on guilt and blame, but peace and blessing.

It astounds me that he did this - that he even had the heart to return at all, let alone with love and compassion. How could he have done this?

I have read somewhere that violence is better understood as a sickness to be healed than as behaviour to be punished. I think this might have been the way that Jesus saw things. He seemed to see beyond the behaviour, behind the violence and hatred that he had borne, through all that to something on which he had compassion. Something sick that needed healing. Some lost, sin-sick souls that had gone astray, that he still loved and cared for, because they were human.

Perhaps it is on this basis that we are able to love our enemies - not as a decision in our heads or an act of sheer will, but a heart-felt care that something has gone terribly wrong for anyone to have enemies at all, and a compassion for all concerned.

If we are enabled, through Christ, to love others as he did, then we too will not be overcome by evil, but will overcome evil with good (Romans 12: 21). Rather than living in fear and hatred, we pray that we, like him, may be bringers of peace, compassion and blessing.

Amen

Heather Thomson
at the Canberra Decade to Overcome Violence event
7.8.03