Sunday Gospel Warm-up
May 25, 2023
Peace Be With You
May 28, John 20:19-23
This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday.
We celebrate the descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. In the Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples and “breathes” on them, the expression for sharing His creative Spirit. But before that, he shows them his wounds and repeats twice ‘Peace be with you”.
The disciples were people who had witnessed the trauma of watching Jesus die on the cross. In reassuring them of His peace, Jesus helps them hold and recover from that experience.
But more importantly, he directs them to continue His mission which is likewise embracing a cross like love that is liable to wound us in a similar way. How can we possibly bear that kind of experience; we fall back and depend on Jesus’ promise to be always a reassuring presence in whatever happens.