Transforming (phase 4) - Jesus appears to his disciples behind closed doors – Divine Mercy Sunday (step 29) - session 1a

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." - Jn 20:19-23

There are places where there is great understatement in the words the evangelists use, and others where we fail to assign them their full import. We find examples of both in this brief passage.

First, the understatement: I imagine the disciples were exceedingly glad when they saw the Lord, once they got over their shock and fear. But perhaps this isn't such understatement: maybe they were still so very much taken aback by Jesus' appearance among them that their gladness was stifled, leading Jesus to repeat his greeting.

Of course Jesus' first message to them was one of peace. If my mother or father or sister were to appear in this room with me, I would likely need to be greeted with peace, too! I thought Fr. Dave did a wonderful job of capturing this idea in his homily of Easter morning. (Even though we had a different scripture passage, the point was still applicable.)

As for the statement we fail to fully grasp: As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. Now, in some ways this isn't fully possible: we haven't been with the Father since before the foundation of the universe, But so many aspects of Jesus' sending should be present in our own, too.

• We aren't to be content to remain where we are. Okay, we may not be coequal with God and seated on a throne of glory. Still, God's love for his lost children is great, and if we know the love of God in the slightest we should also be motivated to be about serving them rather than remaining where we are.
• Jesus had demonstrated in two dramatic ways the sort of humble service to which we are called. 
• First, he performed an act of hygiene which I've been told not even a menial slave could be forced to do. I think that the sanitized version we get at our Holy Thursday liturgies is good as far as it goes, but we don't have to deal with feet (our own or others') that have walked around in highly unsanitary conditions protected only by primitive sandals. 
• He then, of course, gave his life for us, in the most humiliating and agonizing way.

We may not, most of us, be called to lay down our lives so painfully, but we are nonetheless called to lay them down. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. It is not sending with trumpet fanfare and promises of great recognition. But in it is the greatest glory of all.