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Connections&
April 30, 2000
Second Sunday of Easter
+ Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you."
But Thomas was not with them when Jesus came. "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe."
John 20:19-31
Piece by piece, rose by rose
The people who worked to build the great cathedrals of Europe during the Middle Ages never saw them completed. It took hundreds of years to complete these magnificent buildings.
Imagine: centuries ago, a stonecutter somewhere sculpted a beautiful rose, that rose was his life's work, it was all he ever saw. A glassmaker dedicated his life to creating one window for the great church. A laborer worked to shape the stone that would be hauled into place to create the cathedral's massive walls. Yet none of them ever entered the completed cathedral. But one day, the cathedral was there.
Their work was an incredible act of generous faith. We must imagine peace and reconciliation in the same way.
[Adapted from Against the Wind: Memoir of a Radical Christian by Dorothee Soelle.]
CONNECTION: On Easter night, the Risen Christ leaves his new Church the gift of his "peace" -- but Christ's peace is so much more than mere "niceness" or feeling good, so much more than the absence of conflict. The peace of Christ is created brick by brick, pane by pane, rose by rose. Every small act of kindness, justice and mercy we perform creates the great cathedral of Christ's peace. We may never "enter" the completed structure -- but the blessing of Easter is the wisdom, integrity and sense of gratitude to take on our own work in building that peace.
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