CHRIST, THE PRINCE OF PEACE.

"I will hear what the Lord God will speak in me; for He will speak peace unto His people." (Ps. 84:9)

I.

We are told in the Gospel of today that Christ appeared to His Disciples, and said to them thrice: "Peace be to you." (John 20:29) "He is our peace," as the Apostle observes (Eph. 2:14), "thinking thoughts of peace, and not of affliction" (Jer. 29:11), and therefore, among many other titles, He is called by Isaiah, "The Prince of Peace." (Isa. 9:6)

II.

It is our duty to maintain peace with God, our neighbors, and ourselves. Man frequently feels domestic war, "for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh" (Gal. 5:17), and therefore royal David cries out: "There is no peace for my bones" (Ps. 37:4), and another Prophet: "A man's enemies are they of his own household." (Mic. 7:6) Our passions and evil propensities may be understood to be these household enemies. This triple peace your Lord and Savior intends to bring you today in the Eucharist, unless you prevent Him; for the Eucharist is properly a peace offering between God and man. It is also a symbol and bond of charity between us and our neighbors; and lastly, as St. Cyril observes: "It restrains the raging tyranny of the flesh, and entrenches us round with perfect peace." Hence, David observes, God "hath placed peace in thy borders, and filled thee with the fat of corn." (Ps. 147:3)

III.

Christ brought peace, as we read in the Gospel of today, when "the doors were shut and when the Disciples were assembled together in prayer." Shut, therefore, carefully the gates of your senses, and retire to the closet of your heart, and the Lord will say to you: "I will give peace in your coasts, you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid." (Lev. 26:6) Above all things, however, divest yourself of everything like sin; for "there is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord." (Isa. 48:22)

THE DISCIPLES GOING TO EMMAUS. I.

I.

"Behold, two of them went that same day to a town named Emmaus." (Luke 24:13) They went, therefore, on the very day of the Resurrection, to a neighboring town, and while they were discoursing together on the Lord's Passion, and the reports of His Resurrection, Christ Himself joined them on the way. Learn from this fact how He is delighted with the pious discourses of His followers, particularly when His Passion is their subject. The Disciples did not know Christ, because their faith was as yet unsteady. Hence, if you wish to understand divine things, you must possess firm faith, "for if you will not believe, you shall not continue." (Isa. 7:9) God is frequently near us when we take no notice of Him.

II.

How amiably Christ insinuated Himself into the company of His Disciples! "What are these discourses," He asks, "that ye hold one with another as ye walk, and are sad?" Like a good physician, He searches for the wound in order to apply a cure. They answered: "Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty in work and word, before God and all the people." (Luke 24:17, 19) The testimony was honorable to our Savior. Such ought to be the character of every one who is employed in gaining souls, and of every faithful Christian. They should join action to their words and professions, and first teach by example what they wish others to practice. "That discourse," says the great St. Gregory, "more easily penetrates the heart of an audience which is recommended by the orator's life."

III.

Consider the words of their divine companion: "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory?" (Luke 24:26) It was necessary that His sufferings should precede His glory. How can you expect to enter into His glory when you are continually seeking your own ease, convenience, and satisfaction in everything, and when you cannot endure to suffer the least for Him. Reflect how little you have hitherto suffered in God's cause, and remember at the same time that "the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away." (Matt. 11:12)

THE DISCIPLES GOING TO EMMAUS. II.

I.

Christ walks with His Disciples, and explains to them the mysteries of His Passion. How their hearts must have been inflamed with the fire of divine love, which burns in its proper element, so near them! They had reason to say to one another afterwards: "Was not our heart burning within us while He was speaking in the way?" (Luke 24:32) Fervor is a sign of Christ's presence in the soul, as are tepidity and coldness of His absence.

II.

Having arrived at the end of their journey, the two disciples invite their unknown companion to remain with them. He seems inclined to go farther, but they prevail on Him to stay. Although He desires nothing more than to be with us, for "His delight is to be with the children of men" (Prov. 8:31), yet He loves to be entreated, and, in a manner, forced by earnest prayer to remain with us. Such was the sweet compulsion of Jacob in regard to the Angel when he said: "I will not let thee go except thou bless me." (Gen. 32:26) Thus also did the Canaanite woman, by still urging after the first repulse, obtain the cure of her daughter.

III.

"While He was at table with them, He took bread, and blessed, and brake, and gave to them, and they knew Him." (Luke 24:30) These singular actions and their effects show that this was a sacramental entertainment, as the Holy Fathers generally teach. The souls of those who receive worthily are truly enlightened by the breaking of the Eucharistic Bread, and their eyes are opened to see, acknowledge, and love the infinite goodness of its Author. Immediately after Christ had revealed Himself, He disappeared from them; for He does not wish His Disciples to entertain themselves too long, even in spiritual consolations, but return to their employments. Hence, the two disciples "rose up the same hour, and went back to Jerusalem" (Luke 24:30), and with joy related all that had happened.

CHRIST APPEARS IN THE ABSENCE OF ST. THOMAS. I.

I.

"When it was late, that same day, and the doors were shut, Jesus came, and stood in the midst" of the disciples, "and said to them: Peace be to you." (John 20:19) This was the sixth time that Christ appeared on the day of His Resurrection, to console and comfort His friends. Ponder the circumstances of this last apparition. 1. It was late in the evening, to teach you that you ought to await with patience the pleasure of your Lord. 2. He entered whilst the doors were shut, to show the powers of His glorified body. You must shut the inlets of your senses if you wish to entertain Christ as He wishes to be entertained. You must be, in the language of the Canticles: "a garden enclosed and a fountain sealed up." (Cant. 4:12) 3. He stood in the midst of His Disciples, as a Master among His scholars, as a Shepherd amongst His flock, and like the Sun in the center of the planetary world. Stand thus, O Lord, in the center of my soul; teach, feed, and enlighten it.

II.

He says to His disciples: "Peace be to you." He does not wish them fame, nor power, nor riches, nor honors, but peace with God, with their neighbor and themselves. Learn to appreciate this peace above all earthly goods, and to purchase it at any expense. Pray that "the peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding," may "keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 4:7)

III.

To confirm their faith in His Resurrection still more, He asks them if they have any food; "and they offered Him a piece of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb." (Luke 24:42) To convince His Apostles that He was no phantom, He ate. Observe what pains Christ took to convince His Apostles and all mankind of the fact of His Resurrection. He knew that the whole system of His divine doctrine was built upon it, and He always appeals to it as to the test of His mission. The incredulity and obstinacy of the Apostles and Disciples on this subject, observes one of the Holy Fathers, have increased our faith. Who can disbelieve in the Resurrection, when such incredulous and obstinate men were at last convinced of it, and shed their blood in its defense? The Resurrection of Christ, however, will be of no advantage to you, unless you rise with Him to a newness of life.

CHRIST APPEARS IN THE ABSENCE OF ST. THOMAS. II.

I.

After Christ had eaten, He ordained His Apostles missionaries, teachers, and pastors of His flock. He first, however, repeats the words "Peace be to you," to show them how necessary peace and unity are in the sacred ministry. "As My Father has sent Me," He continues, "I also send you." (John 20:21) He communicates the same authority to them which the Father had given to Him; and as the Father had sent Him, not to seek His ease, but the salvation of mankind, through pains and affliction; in the same manner, to gain the same object by the same means, did He send His Apostles, Hence, apostolic men ought to love sufferings when the glory of God can be promoted by them.

II.

"When He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." (John 20:22) Christ might as easily have communicated the Divine Spirit to them without breathing on them, but He did so, to inspire His followers with a reverence for similar ceremonies of His Church. By these ceremonies, the Holy Ghost is imparted to the soul, or His divine grace given, in many cases by virtue of the work performed, and in others in consequence of the merits and disposition of the person who performs them, or for whom they are performed. Beg of Almighty God to bestow on you something, at least, of His Divine Spirit, to enable you, after having risen with Christ, like Him, "to die no more" (Rom. 6:9), and not to relapse again into your former sins and failings.

III.

"Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained." (John 20:23) Ponder the power and dignity expressed in these words. God never gave the same power to the Priests of the Old Law, nor to the Angels themselves. He did not confine this power to any determinate number of Priests, nor to the quality of the Priests, or of the sins, but gave it for the benefit of all, in the sacrament of Penance. Admire the riches and bounty of God's mercy, and thank Him for such an easy remedy for your sins. The sacrament of Penance is truly "a fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for. the washing of the sinner." (Zech. 13:1)

CHRIST APPEARS IN THE PRESENCE OF ST. THOMAS.

I.

As yet, one of the Apostles refused to believe in the Resurrection of his Master. St. Thomas had fallen into this incredulity, because he was separated from the rest when Christ had first appeared to the Disciples, because he stubbornly refused his assent to the fact of his Savior's Resurrection on the sufficient testimony of others, and because he presumptuously prescribed to God the condition on which alone he would consent to believe. "Unless I shall see in His hands," he said, "the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." (John 20:25) During the space of eight days, he persisted obstinately in his incredulity, in spite of all the persuasions and reasons of the other Apostles. Learn from this to avoid singularity, as a dangerous rock, on which many a one, otherwise virtuous, has split. Be slow to prefer your own judgment in spiritual things to that of others. Meditate on the goodness of your God, who, as He permitted St. Peter to fall, during His Passion, in order to show us the weakness of human nature and to teach us humility, so permits St. Thomas to remain so long incredulous, to teach us the necessity of "believing what we have not seen," and what reason cannot fathom, provided we have sufficient motives to be convinced that God's veracity is pledged for the certainty of the tenet.

II.

Like a good shepherd, Christ seeks His lost sheep. He returns to the Apostles, He enters again, whilst the doors are shut, salutes them as before, and, turning to St. Thomas, without an angry look or a word of reproach, amiably addresses him: "Put in thy finger hither," He says, "and see My hands, and bring hither thy hand and put it into My side: and be not incredulous, but faithful." (John 20:27) Oh how his heart must have been inflamed when he put his hand into those burning furnaces of love! So ought you to be inflamed when you approach the Holy Eucharist.

III.

Consider the admirable acknowledgment of St. Thomas: "My Lord and my God." He confesses that Jesus is true man and true God, acknowledging His human nature in the first and His divine nature in the second word. Ponder these two titles: since He is your Lord, act not for yourself, but for Him; and as He is your God, give Him the honor and worship which He deserves. Say with the Royal Psalmist: "To Thee, O Lord, will I cry, and I will make supplication to my God. O Lord, my God, I will give praise to Thee forever." (Ps. 29:9, 13)

WHY CHRIST RETAINED THE WOUNDS IN HIS GLORIFIED BODY.

I.

Christ chose to retain the marks of His wounds in His glorified body for various reasons. 1. He wished to strengthen His Disciples and His followers in the belief of His Resurrection, by showing them that it was the same body which was nailed to the cross that had risen again. 2. He wished to increase our confidence, by showing us the marks of His triumph over the world, encouraging us to "have confidence," as He says, "I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) 3. He carried these wounds as a perpetual memorial of His love towards us, and in order to incite us to return love for love, by suffering for Him. Hence, St. Paul, who fully appreciated His motive, says of himself: "I bear the marks of the Lord Jesus in my body." (Gal. 6:17)

II.

He retains these wounds to convince us that He will take special care of us whilst He is in heaven. "Can a woman forget her infant? Yet will not I forget thee; behold, I have graven thee in My hands." (Isa. 49:15) He continually presents these wounds to His Father to plead in our behalf. Hence we may address the Father in the words of David: "Behold, O God, our protector, and look upon the face of Thy Christ." (Ps. 83:10)

III.

His wounds are to the Church what the fountains that watered it were to Paradise. They are the sources of every grace to the faithful. Hence Isaiah says: "Ye shall draw waters with joy out of the Savior's fountains." (Isa. 13:3) These divine wounds afford a refuge for the afflicted and distressed soul in all the accidents and crosses which attend us in this vale of tears. Whenever, therefore, your mind and heart are oppressed, enter thou into the rock with Isaiah, "and hide thee in the pits, from the face of the fear of the Lord." (Isa. 2:10) Remember that that "rock is Christ," and those pits His sacred wounds. Remain, therefore, in the cliffs of the rock, in the hollow places of the wall." (Cant. 2:14)