During this Easter Season, the Church, especially through the liturgy, helps us to be joined to the original experience of the resurrection of Jesus that so impacted the first believers. Not only in memory, but also spiritually, the Gospels allow us to walk with the grieving women to the tomb of Jesus on the morning of the third day. We run with Peter and John to check out the empty tomb. And we feel, in the Gospel accounts, the initial wonder and confusion experienced by the disciples until Jesus appears to them.

 

The Gospels contain the eyewitness accounts of the first meetings with Jesus after He rose from the dead. We read their conversations as the disciples moved from fear and despondency to the faith in the resurrection that transformed them and to which they witnessed so that it might be passed on even to us today. By sharing in those moments with the disciples, we join the unity of the Church through the ages.

 

Those accounts detail two sets of reflections from the early Church. First, they describe elements of the physical nature of the resurrection. Those reflections stress that the Risen Lord was truly in His body, the same body that they had known and that had been nailed to the cross. 

 

Most striking was that Jesus showed them His wounds. The glory of the resurrection had not somehow erased those marks and with them the earthly life of Jesus including His suffering. 

 

Likewise, the disciples recount that Jesus ate and drank with them. That is of interest because in our bodily reality, the first reason for eating and drinking is to stay alive. If we did not do so we would quickly die. Jesus, being no longer subject to death in His humanity, no longer needed to eat and drink. Still, there is a pleasure in eating and drinking that takes us beyond mere physical survival to social union and joy that is expressed by sharing a meal. And Jesus did promise His followers that they would “eat and drink at my table in my kingdom.” (Lk 22: 30)

 

These testimonies about some of the physical elements of the resurrected Jesus are of course of great interest. We have been promised a share in the resurrection of Jesus if we are faithful. And so we try to spiritually imagine how our own resurrected bodies will share what the disciples saw in Jesus.

 

But a second set of reflections deals with what Jesus said to His followers in their post-resurrection encounters. Most prominently, Jesus repeatedly greeted them by saying “Peace be with you.” And He said to Mary Magdalen and the other Mary, “Do not be afraid.” (Mt 28: 10)

 

Jesus associates His resurrection and the conquering of sin and death with His gift of peace. And He said it was a peace the world cannot give. Of course we pray for the cessation of all wars, violence and hostility. But the peace of Christ goes much wider.

 

So much of our lack of peace comes from our hearts that are troubled, not at peace. Our society is filled with people who are angry, easily offended, constantly demanding apologies and retractions and generally unforgiving. The late Cardinal Francis George once summed up this reality by saying that we live in a society where everything is permitted and nothing is forgiven.

 

To enter into the resurrection we need to be spiritually prepared by our prayer, our faith, our sacrifices and our love. Love for God and each other. The risen Christ calls us to that reality and gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit to accomplish what He wants. For this reason, in the Gospel of John, after gifting His Apostles with peace, the risen Jesus said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22).