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2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER, YEAR B—2015
Readings: Acts 4:32-35; 1 Jn. 5:1-6; Jn 20:19-31.
DO NOT BE AFRAID
Today we celebrate the Second Sunday of Easter. Today’s readings can give
us some insight into what Jesus’s resurrection could mean in the routine of our
lives, in the nitty-gritty of our friendships, family, work, and even in the politics
and economics our larger community.
Notice how Jesus’s disciples learn of his resurrection on the first Easter day.
John tells us they are gathered in the darkness, hiding in an upper room out of fear.
When the risen Jesus comes among them, his first word is Shalom--“Peace be with
you.” Biblical scholars tell us that the basic meaning Shalom is not the opposite of
conflict or war, but the opposite of fear. In the gospels the first words announcing
the resurrection say almost always say the same thing: Do not be afraid. In Mark
and Matthew, an angel appears to Mary Magdalen and other women who were
followers of Jesus and says: “Do not be afraid; you are looking for Jesus of
Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised.”
The gospels are suggesting that faith in the resurrection of Jesus can free us
from fear, and all the harms that fear leads to. I think fear is the root of most of the
conflicts in our close relationships and in our social life and politics. It makes us
defensive and self-protective. When we fear that important relationships or our
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self-image are in danger, we often lash out aggressively. If we fear that our very
lives are at risk, self-defense by violence becomes reasonable.
Think what it would mean to be free of all these fears. It would free us from
the anxieties that separate us from each other and that often erupt in conflict.
Freedom from fear would pull up the roots of most of the injustice and war in our
world. We could live in a new way. It is exactly that kind of new life that the risen
Jesus offers us. “Do not be afraid.” “Peace--not fear--be with you.”
Faith in Jesus resurrection can cast out fear by overcoming the very core of
all our fears--the fear of death. It is death, above all, that makes us afraid and
anxious. We fear lesser threats because they are intimations of the really big
threat--death. The resurrection of Jesus can pull up the roots of every anxiety that
leads to anger, conflict, or violence. As the Eucharistic acclamation puts it:
“Dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life.”
The letter to the Hebrews is speaking about us when it speaks of those “who
through fear of death were slaves their whole lives long” (Heb. 2:15). Fear of
death can make us slaves to the need to be self-protective, slaves to the idea that we
have to win, slaves to the illusion that we can make ourselves secure all on our
own. We can’t do that, of course. But the resurrection of Jesus is a promise that
we are not on our own in the face of death. Jesus is there with us.
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One of the most overlooked aspects of the resurrection stories in the New
Testament is that in most of them the disciples recognize Jesus when he shows
them the wounds of his crucifixion. That is true in today’s gospel. When Jesus
comes among disciples them in the darkened room he “showed them his hands and
his side.” This leads them to rejoice. When he invites Thomas to touch these
wounds, he is inviting his disciples—and us—to know that he has been where we
are most fearful of going. He has been through the door of death. By going
through this door because of his love for us, his love has conquered death itself!
Belief in Jesus’s victory over death had an extraordinary effect on his first
disciples. Look at the way our first reading described their life together. They
distributed their wealth to everyone according to need, because they no longer felt
that having more was the key to security. So “there was not a needy person among
them.” Freedom from fear can do amazing things to social life.
Today Jesus says to us: Do not be afraid! Peace to you! If, like Thomas, we
come to believe that Jesus has conquered death itself, we will have a freedom that
can transform our own lives and also our communities. Such faith will free us to
live with joyful love. Let us pray we will be able to proclaim with each other
around this table: “dying you destroyed our death, rising you restored our life.”
Faith in that proclamation will free us from fear, and bring us true Easter joy.
David Hollenbach, S.J.,
St. Ignatius Church
April 12, 2015