The risen Jesus appears in the midst of his disciples; St. Luke tells us that “they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost.”
Why were they afraid? On the one hand, it seems like they should have been afraid. For there is evidently not peace among them. They had betrayed the Lord. Remember that only the apostle John followed Jesus to the foot of the cross. How could they have been at peace with God after such tumult?
Then, because they betrayed the Lord, there must have been tensions internally among themselves. If we know, thanks to the record of the Scriptures, that Peter denied knowing Jesus three times, surely the other disciples knew that too. Poor Thomas didn’t believe the word of the others that Jesus had truly risen. The closest friends of the Lord were not all in all of one accord.
And there was a third conflict. Think how torn the disciples who were believing Jews must have been. Suddenly, after years of witnessing Jesus’ miracles and hearing his marvelous teaching, they found themselves squarely at odds with their own beloved tradition. What were they to do? Renounce once and for all the Gospel of Jesus? Could things really go back to being the same as they had been before?
The resurrection is a startling thing. Unsure of what God had done in their midst, the disciples approach the Lord with fear and trembling. Out of an abundance of mercy, Jesus assured his closest friends that he had indeed risen from the dead. He ate and drank in their midst. He taught them. He loved them. It is a mercy that Jesus appears among them, walking once more with them, providing the confidence the disciples needed to preach the Gospel.
The fruit of this mercy is peace. Jesus greets the disciples saying, “Peace be with you.” This is not mere formality. It’s not simply a regional or religious custom that Jesus is following. St. Thomas Aquinas says,
Repeatedly, Jesus stands among those he loves, and through his steadfast mercy, offers them peace.
If we think about, though, the trouble, we see the unrest experienced by those first disciples is not theirs alone. Rather, this is the tumult known by every follower of Jesus. Theirs is the archtypical experience, but it is ours as well.
The peace Jesus brings is an awesome—as in full of awe—and terrible thing. Awesome, because there is nothing like it. Who could imagine God would love us so much that his peace would burst into these clouds of darkness of our hearts? Terrible, because, as St. John Chrysostom says,
Only by his suffering and death does this peace come to us.
Look to God with awe this day. Marvel at his work! Embrace too his way of the cross, for in the end, imitation of him is the only way to peace.
