Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Where Is the One We Seek: Second Week

The gospel for the second Sunday of Easter is the story of Jesus’ appearance to his followers on Easter night. Though they were hiding behind locked doors, Jesus appeared, wishing them peace, breathing the Holy Spirit on them, and entrusting to them (and to us) a share in his own mission of bringing forgiveness and reconciliation between people as well as between human beings and God. The Holy Spirit was Jesus’ Easter gift to empower the church and individual believers to be agents of this reconciliation.

The angels at the tomb on Easter morning told the women to seek Jesus among the living not among the dead. And life certainly happens when forgiveness is asked for and given, when misunderstandings are talked out and settled without violence, when people regard each other with respect and give each other the benefit of the doubt and when they keep the doors of dialogue open to those they don’t like or don’t understand. That’s where life is and where Christ is. And finding Jesus there, we know that he is truly risen.