Commentary on the Gospel of
Thursday: Post-resurrection ‘community reunion’
The Lord Jesus Christ is a man of the community! Watch carefully in the gospel, you do not find Jesus alone! He is always in the community with His disciples (small or large groups – including his encounters with Nicodemus or the Samaritan woman), or in his divine community with the Father. And He does not let His death terminate their community-living. And so, post resurrection, he re-launches the reunion of the scattered community of His beloved disciples. From Emmaus Cleopas and his counterpart raced to Jerusalem, just to find all others re-assembled! Wow ooh!! And the story is the same: ‘He’s risen,’ they exclaimed.
While this one story is on, the Lord appears. You guys are doing well, you have reunited, great! He would have re-echoed. Oh no, He started with ‘Peace be with you,’ calming them down once again. We need peace in our Christian communities and in oneself – the kind of peace that the world cannot give. In one of the days of stay-at-home because of the COVID-19, a couple who hardly met at home except late in the night shared how it was an occasion to begin to cultivate speaking to and with each other once again. One of them confessed: ‘it was not easy to regain my peace in his presence, for the entire day, week!’ The resurrected Lord reconvenes us:
to open up to one another: ‘why are you troubled?’;
to believe each other while telling the truth: ‘look at my hands and feet, that it is I myself;’
to share what we have with one other: ‘have you anything here to eat?’
to exhort one another with the Word: ‘he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures;’
to go out and announce the Good News: ‘you are witnesses of these things.’
All these are meaningfully enriching just because we constitute a community of brothers and sisters, sharing from one source, namely the risen Lord. He loves to see us united in love. Lord, renew your strength in each one of us as we share, amen.
