Jesus will save the Church

Terrified by Jesus’ execution, the disciples take refuge in a familiar house. They are together once again, but Jesus is not with them. There is emptiness in the community which no one can fill. They miss Jesus. Whom will they follow now? What can they do without him? It is getting to be “evening” in Jerusalem as well as in the hearts of the disciples.

In the house where they are, “the doors are locked.” It is a community without either mission or horizon, locked up in itself, unable to be welcoming. No one thinks now of going forth along the roads to announce the kingdom of God and heal life. Someone behind closed doors cannot possibly get close to the suffering of the people.

The disciples are full of “fear of the Jews.” It is a community paralyzed by fear, a defensive attitude. They only see hostility and rejection everywhere. It is not possible for anyone who is afraid to love the world as Jesus did, or to instill liveliness and hope in any anyone.

Suddenly, the risen Jesus takes the initiative. He comes to rescue his followers. “He comes in and stands in their midst.” The small community begins to be transformed. They pass from fear to the peace Jesus inspires in them. They pass from the darkness of the night to the joy of seeing him again fully alive. Soon they will pass from locked doors to the opening of the mission.

Jesus speaks to them, putting all his trust in those poor human beings: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” He does not tell them to whom they should get near, what they have to announce or how they must conduct themselves.

Jesus knows his disciples’ frailty. He has criticized many times their little and faltering faith. They need the strength of the Spirit so that they may fulfill their mission. That is why he performs a special gesture for them. He neither lays his hands on them nor blesses them as he did to sick people. He breathes on them and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Only Jesus will save the Church. He alone can free us from the fears that paralyze us, can break the boring structures we try to shut ourselves in throughout the centuries, to set straight so many paths that have made us stray from him.

What is asked of us is to rekindle in the whole Church trust in the risen Jesus, to mobilize so we may fearlessly put him in the center of our parishes and communities, and focus our strengths on listening to what Spirit is saying to his men and women followers today.

José Antonio Pagola

April 27, 2014
2 Easter (A)
John 20, 19-31