KES Chapel Reflection, Week of 12 April
Peace and forgiveness
Ideas matter, especially ideas that transform vision and give meaning and purpose. In Chapel, during this week which began with the phenomenon of the solar eclipse, there was a kind of inverse of the eclipse in pondering some of the intriguing stories about the resurrection. Simply put, the resurrection does not eclipse the passion of Christ; rather it makes visible what is hidden but present in the passion, namely, light in darkness, life in death. In an insight which belongs to a number of philosophical and religious traditions, the passion and resurrection witnesses to the powerful idea of the principle of life itself which is greater than sin and death, greater than suffering and evil which they in fact presuppose. The resurrection accounts in the Gospels show how that idea comes to be known by the disciples.
This week also marked the end of Ramadan with the Feast of Eid al-fitr for the Islamic world, itself a celebration of what is made known through the giving of the Qur’an to Mohammed. Once again the focus on what is made known about God through the forms of revelation in the various spiritual traditions of faith.
The stories of the resurrection belong to the process of education itself: how ideas are made real and live in us as students and teachers. The 20th chapter of John’s Gospel is particularly compelling in the image of the disciples huddled in fear behind closed doors “on the same day at evening” and eight days later, again behind closed doors. The image speaks to our culture of fear and anxiety. We are in fear and confusion behind the closed doors of our minds, literally and metaphorically closed in ourselves, even buried in ourselves. Our minds are like tombs where we are dead in ourselves and to one another. Yet this is the setting where Jesus comes into the midst and proclaims peace and forgiveness. He makes visible what was hidden but present in his crucifixion and death: the peace which God brings and the forgiveness which God alone gives.
A striking feature of John’s account is the emphasis upon the reality of the passion. “He showed unto them his hands and his side.” The marks of the crucifixion are central to the teaching; they become the marks of love, the love which transforms us and sets us in motion. “Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord.” The first moment is on “the same day at evening,” meaning Easter day in the evening and in the same Upper Room as the Passover meal on the night of Christ’s betrayal. The second moment is a week later but again behind closed doors. With the first moment it is as if time has slowed and we are in the moment, the eternal now of divine life itself. “Peace be unto you,” Jesus says, twice on this occasion and then a third time a week later. The first moment ends with the theme of forgiveness bestowed and entrusted to the disciples upon whom Jesus breathed his spirit, the Holy Spirit. They are sent to proclaim forgiveness, to make his forgiveness known to all who seek it. They are made apostles, those who are sent.