The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Second Sunday of Easter

In the third film of the Indiana Jones adventures entitled, "The Last Crusade", Jones is faced with the challenge of finding the Holy Grail of Jesus Christ, the cup of the Last Supper, before selfish and destructive men can do so. In the film drinking from the grail confers eternal life. He , along with his father and friends come to the place where the grail is kept, but his enemies arrive there too and arrest him. They demand that he fetch the grail by overcoming many dangerous obstacles; he refuses, but they shoot his father in the stomach. Only a drink from the grail can save his father. The man who shot Jones' father then turns to him and tells him " Now Mr. Jones, It is time to ask yourself what you really believe!" 

Peace be to you" are the words the risen Christ greets his disciples with when he appears to them. That is the primary experience of witnessing to the resurrected Christ--peace-- the freedom from anxiety and fear in life. Jesus' appearing to the disciples was one in which they experienced him as alive, as the exalted Lord, and experienced his loving forgiveness--even though they deserted him. They were, in effect, given a new life ! It was a new life born of the sacrificial love of God. This is driven home by John when Thomas doubts the resurrection. What cinches it for Thomas is when he can probe the wounds of Christ--that is touch the historically crucified one known in the wounds of God's sacrificial love. This elicits Thomas' confession, "My Lord and My God. " 

The effect of the resurrection on the disciples is evident in Acts. They responded to God's generosity and gift in Jesus by modeling their lives on Jesus' life and service unto death. The Jerusalem Church pooled their wealth and each got according to need and gave according to ability. This small group, this Church became an alternative to the idols of social prestige and class distinctions, and wealth for its own sake. This early form of Christian communism stood out as a community of love that valued the dignity of every human person, not in lip service to the ideal, but in concrete action ! It simply was intolerable to Christians that anyone in the community not be able to live as a human person ought to live. This is love in the concrete. The power of the resurrection set them free--free from grasping and clutching onto things to ward off death or to deny it!  What's more, now that God's love in Jesus has been accepted into their lives, they are becoming what they worship ! Instead of grasping for all the "gusto" in life before others do so--they open their hands in charity and justice for others in the Church and those less fortunate outside the Church. We see this freedom in our world today in the witness of Mother Teresa, in religious communities, in parishes that demand soup kitchens remain open, in small Christian Communities that work for social change-unconcerned about others feel about it. The power of the resurrection sets us free to love without needless anxiety about life!  We are free to let go, to stop grasping and clutching things and learn to embrace each other. We need not strive for power over others, more wealth for its own sake, or the illusion of security when trying to transform our world in the power of the risen One.

Certainly if all the powerful and wealthy of this world, or even those wealthy and powerful in the Church, were to respond like the Jerusalem community--at least in the Spirit of sacrifice and service the world would be transformed. To voluntarily share wealth and power is the challenge to the Church and the nations--compelled by the resurrection of Jesus. One writer put it this way: " The Christian message provides no technical solutions for environmental protection, distribution of raw materials or structural changes... But in the light of Jesus Christ it also makes sense not to be always striving, not always to be trying to have everything, not to be governed by the laws of prestige and competition; not to take part in the cult of abundance; but even with children to exercise the freedom to renounce consumption--... contented unpretentiousness as a basic attitude--an attitude and action of Christian freedom."

Indiana Jones got to the grail, was able to help heal his father as his father drank from it. But it was forbidden to bring the grail beyond a certain point. When a woman tried to flee with it, to possess it, the building around them bean to fall and the floor split open. The grail fell into the hole and was perched on a small ledge. The woman, in trying to get at the grail fell into the dark pit, because she would not let go of trying to clutch the grail--Jones went after her but was unable to save her. Instead he ended up in the same situation--this time his father holding his hands as he strained to grasp the grail. Finally, in a low soft voice he heard his father say " Indiana, Indiana, let it go ". He does, and is saved.

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000