22 April 2012 at Saint Mark the Evangelist in Norman, OK
Acts 3: 13-15, 17-19 + Psalm 4 + 1 John 2: 1-5 + Luke 24: 35-48
We have, for one reason or another begun to confuse “Peace” and “Security.” I am noticing this more and more in the rhetoric we hear from the leaders in this world. When they talk of peace, they often say “peace-and-security” which too many people seem to think is the same thing. The gift of Jesus about which we hear a great deal on these Sundays after Easter is not “security”. It is something else. It is possible to have one without the other. It is preferable to have both, but if it is necessary to choose one or the other, the human family might be better off with peace. Security will follow, but no amount of security is going to bring peace.
Since the life-changing events of 9/11, we have, in this country, put into place an entire army with the name: “Homeland Security”. TSA agents now have more to do with our coming and going than traffic cops. It strikes me as ironic that this entire agency concerned with “Security” has accomplished nothing when it comes to peace: not even peace of mind. In my opinion, it has made us more anxious. We want to build walls and fences to “secure” our boaders. Why? I think it is because we have not figured out how to have, make, or establish “peace”; and so we settle for security which in the end is a poor substitute.
Those apostles after the death of Jesus had no security. They locked the doors where they were. So Jesus came again and again to suggest to them that what they needed was peace, and once they had it, received it, gave it, or found it, they could forget about secuirty. The truth is, they never did have security. The fact is, they did not need it after they found and made peace. Life was still full of threats and danger, conflcit and adversity, but they lived in the midst life with a spirit of peace, with courage and joy.
A careful reading of Luke’s Gospel verses after the Death and Resurrection makes it perfectly clear that this gift of “peace” is the consequence or the reward that comes with forgiveness. I believe that what went on in that upper room to which they seemed to return so often was forgiveness: a healing experience that emerged from their memories of what Jesus had taught and said to them over and over again. I believe that first of all they forgave themselves for being such cowards and doubters. I believe that they forgave Jesus for leaving them: a process of grieving, and I believe that they forgave one another for not being there, for their easy ambitions, and their failure to grasp what was in front of them while it was there. I believe that they began to accept the forgiveness Christ offered them for having failed to understand and to act. That forgiveness gradually and steadily gave them peace.
Another way of looking at this might allow us to say: that they were not living in harmony with their conscience. The inner conflict between what they knew was right, and what they did or failed to do kept them for being and living in peace. Once they came intouch with their conscience formed by the Word of God in Jesus, they had peace: the peace Jesus wished for them.
I often think of Father Stan Rother in this regard. He left Guatamala because there was no security. He wasn’t safe. He came home, and over a period of weeks I think his time at home was much like the time the Apostles in that locked up room. He had security, but no peace. So, over time, I think he wanted peace more than security. He wanted the peace of being where he was called to be with the people he loved more than security. He went back with peace – guided by his conscience, at peace with his conscience, and in spite of the violence of his murder, I believe he died and now lives in peace.
At the heart of it all is forgiveness, and without forgiveness, human kind has no hope and no future. Without forgiveness and the peace which follows, we shall destroy one another. Most of the time, when it comes to generations of hatred, anger and violence, no one can rememeber why it started, and if they do, they know in their hearts that it was some silly little thing. Anger has a way of taking over our lives, of possessing us, and making us mad/crazy/incoherent, and insecure. The gift Jesus would leave with us, the whole purpose of his incarnation was peace: reconciliation.
The novelist Mary Gordon after the break-up of the Soviet Union in the early stages of the conflict in Yugoslavia wrote these words: “The heavy topsoil of repressed injustice breeds anger better than any other medium. That anger rolls and rolls like a flaming boulder gaining mass and speed even when the original causes of the anger is forgotten. The only way to stop this kind of irrational anger is an equally irrational forgiveness.”
The apostles learned that truth from Jesus. The question remains when shall we learn it and act upon the lesson seeking peace rather than security, since once there is peace, there will be no need for security. We must come to live in peace with our conscience, doing what is right rather than what is easy, living the right way even if it means living with some risk, and speaking the truth even if it means paying a price.