ALL SAINTS MARGARET STREET

Easter II High Mass

Fr Ivan Aquilina

Love, Peace and Mercy are qualities that all of us would cherish, that all of us need just as much we need oxygen. Not just us who come here Sunday after Sunday but also those who never darken a church door.

Today Jesus offers us these qualities and commissions us to be stewards of Love, Peace and Mercy to those who are not able to hear His sweet voice in here. Today we are being commissioned to be the voice for Jesus who is the Word.

The disciples where in a place not accessible for others, the doors were shut; the small community of Jesus was inward looking, it was in maintenance mode. Jesus, in the power of his resurrection bursts forth through the closed doors and stands among them.

What are our closed doors? As a community who are we afraid to let in? Who’s feet would we not rather wash? And as individuals, what are our fears? What insecurities demand us to close the doors? We might already know the answer to these questions; we might want to take time to see the cause rather than the effects. Whatever the cause or causes we can not tackle them single-handedly both as individuals and as a community of believers. We need to invite Jesus to burst forth through the closed doors and come and stand in the midst of our lives and in the midst of our community. To turn us from maintenance mode to mission mode. This week our prayer must be: “Come risen Lord, and deign to be our guest!”

When we invite the Risen Jesus, if we are genuine, he will enter in and he will speak to us. What he tells us is what he says to his disciples in today’s gospel. Let us have a closer look.

The first thing he offers is Peace. In His presence all our fears are taken away. He has conquered sin and death, the utmost of desolations, he can triumph on every fear we might have. The peace He gives encourages us and enables us to live in peace. It is interesting that this happens in a normal every day manner. Greeting each other for peace is the normal greeting for eastern Mediterranean people. When we meet we say hello, other people say: Salaam, or Shalom. This shows that we are to look for the presence of Christ in the normal day to day business of life. Jesus was recognised after this greeting and later on by Thomas in his wounds. Something which was very obvious for those who saw him nailed from a distance was overlooked when Jesus came among them, he had to be patient and show to them himself his wounds of Love. In Love we recognise Jesus and share His peace, fear is dissolved and we are glad and joyful. Is not this the joy that our hearts yearn for?

That great Bishop of Durham Brooke Foss Westcott called the next verse as: “The Charter of the Church”. “As the Father sent me so even I send you”. Jesus needs the Church to continue his work of love. Jesus today sends us to speak about His love and to share his peace. Just as he needs us so we need him. If we are being sent we need constantly to refer to the one who sends us. It is not our love or our words that we are to proclaim but His love, His word of peace that brings joy. We need Him just as much as he needs us.
Jesus is the great enabler. He empowers us to be his witnesses. To be witnesses He includes us in His intimate life with the Father, in other words, He gives us a share in His life as God. He is not afraid to share with us not only his blood and body but also His intimate life with the Father and so breathes a symbol of new creation – remember Genesis - on His disciples and through them on us.

Through our intimacy with him we can offer to all the forgiveness of sins. Through His Divine Mercy we break what makes us dull and so live in joy, not just us but also those whom we are called to wash their feet - our neighbour.

Living in this intimacy with Jesus, in His wounds of love, in His peace and in His joy with Thomas we say to him: “My Lord and My God”, that beautiful prayer that we are invited to say silently as the priest elevates the Sacred Host and the Chalice in the consecration in every Mass. We are called to enable others to call Him “My Lord and My God”. How we do this is different for each and every one of us but it all wells up from our intimacy with the Risen Lord.

“Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book”. So ends our Gospel for today. So also continues our story. Jesus still makes many signs through us; they are written with the ink of joy on the canvas of our life. And the canvas of our lives is fulfilled with the prime colours of Peace, Love and Divine Mercy when God rejoices as He brings His creation to perfection in us.