Second Sunday of Easter, Year A/Divine Mercy Sunday, 2020

“Peace be with You,” When God Heals our Arrogance

Acts 2:42-47; 1 Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

Despondency, depression and morbid fear everywhere, is what we notice. Yes, we are not at war: no bombs and mines exploding, neither bullets nor bomber jets flying, coupled with the absence of hands wielding machetes; yet, sadness overwhelms and fear grips many an individual—there is no peace, no shalom (wholeness). The cold hands of death wreck havoc unabated, and we watch helplessly the disintegration of the human health. “Ghost town,” indeed, captures the description of what is happening; human beings have been “zooed” in their homes, and the inmates of human zoos now roam freely in human social spaces. Like a ghost, an invisible cause of malaise and “stealer” of peace—COVID-19–drives home the need for peace: not the absence of war, but the presence of God. “Peace”—“Shalom” as “wholeness” is what we need to arrest our economies from a free-fall, our not-quick-enough sciences to rescue those dead and dying, and our military and weapon quarantined like the rest of humanity. How lucky were are to have the “First Day of the Week”! This is the message of Divine Mercy Sunday—“Peace be with You”—when God heals our science of all its arrogance and restores every brokenness of the human mind, body and society!

The nascent Christian community had its lockdown and ghost-town, because Jesus ascended into heaven. Earliest Christians felt the emptiness and powerlessness of Jesus’ absence and the palpable and paralyzing fear of the authorities of the day. Many Christians were either killed or jailed, including Peter, their leader. The disciples of Jesus desperately awaited the power from above to help them to weather the storm. Our first reading puts it this way: “They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers” (Acts 2:42). This is their alchemy because human solutions failed them, while divine proposal was the viable alternative available to them. Today, the same solution is available to us—God’s peace!

The three recipes for dealing with fear and the restoration of peace, from whatever threatens it, became the anchor of the disciples of Jesus. They had to realize that they were not alone; they needed the return and the presence of God in their circumstances, because the fear of loneliness easily transforms into helplessness. First, the restoration of “communal life,” instead of individualism, of the disciples of Jesus provided them with mutual shoulders to lean on. Second, their reliance on the “teachings of the apostles,” as source of strength, anchored their lives on the promises of Christ to those who believe in him.  Third, and above all, “in the breaking of bread and prayers” was their force, because prayer—“the breaking of bread”—is that power that makes God present—the First Day of the Week.

Our first reading makes it evident that “peace” is only guaranteed by God, no human person can provide it. It is the human connectedness to God and rootedness in God’s words that ensure peace. There are criteria for evaluating the presence of peace: “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need” (Acts 2:45). Materialism and greed are symptomatic of a “peaceless” life, and egoism and lack of sharing with others are signs of “covidity”—because COVID-19 asphyxiates one of life, not just the lack of oxygen, which is a free gift of God.

Our gospel repeats the scenario of fear and anxiety, like our first reading, because of the absence of Jesus. The death of Christ crumbled the certainty and courage of his followers. The belief that the Lord was lying in the tomb, lifeless and powerless, saddened and paralyzed his disciples. On the First Day of the Week, all changed: “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’” (John 20:19). “Peace be with you” makes God, in Jesus-Christ, the giver of peace and restorer of human brokenness, when he comes to us. “Peace” itself becomes restoration of all that has fallen apart. In the case of the disciples/apostles, it was the expulsion of fear and the restoration of joy and confidence. The most important confidence restored was the defeat of the fear of death. The resurrection of Jesus is the “peace” of God that human beings will live forever; that there is life beyond the grave and the fear of death.

“Peace” is the restoration of balance in all that had fallen apart—bad economy, disoriented science, individualism, racism, fear, etc. The doubts of Thomas provides the need for Jesus to heal science. Thomas, like many of us, wanted hard evidence and palpable proof of the resurrection, in order to have his fears taken away and his joy and confidence restored: “Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe’” (John 20:26-27).

In two appearances of Jesus, he offered two kinds of peace: at his first appearance, he took away the fear of human authority over human life—the fear of death; at his second appearance, Jesus heals science, he gives Thomas a scientific proof of the resurrection, although he entered the room while the doors remained locked. “Peace” is the healing of all human ills, including the downgrading of the human trust in science through an unresolved contradiction: the locked door couldn’t stop Jesus from entering the room, yet Thomas was able to touch flesh and bones, when he touched him!

Each time Jesus offers peace, he restores an aspect of our life that is broken and shattered by fear, greed, oppression, racism, incredulity, science and technology, etc. Only the confession of the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the supremacy of God over science, technology and human hubris can bring about peace. Thomas teaches us a lesson, in his statement of confession and worship of God — “My Lord and my God!” When one arrives at the worship of God, then fear disappears and peace reigns. It is along this line of permanent peace that our second reading makes us to understand that the only fear of the human person—death—is already conquered by Jesus on behalf of humanity: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you who by the power of God are safeguarded through faith, to a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the final time” ( 1 Peter 1:3-5).

COVID-19 makes us realize the aspects of our lives that need wholeness and restoration (peace/shalom): scientific power is humbled, economic predictions—bleak, political theories—too heavy a burden to carry, biological mastery—in shambles, and military power—useless. We need the Lord to say “peace be with you,” so we pray in our isolations, we watch the Lord “break bread” for us via our streamed Eucharistic celebration. Yes, the “First Day of the Week” has become everyday of the week because God comes to us in spiritual communion beyond the reach of COVID-19. Very soon, our doors will be opened again, for us to go out to live life as we usually did: then, shall we still remember the Lord of life?