UNIFY: PART 2 OF 11, PRESENCE AND ABSENCE

“They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost.” (Luke 24) The sight of the Risen Lord Jesus overwhelms the disciples. They are jittery and scared, for they last saw him crucified and laid in a tomb. They knew that he was dead! Scattered within themselves by fear, they recoil when we might imagine they would feel joy.

One of the worst things we experience is absence, the withdrawal of someone we love. All of the ordinary routines of life, eating, sleeping, cooking, cleaning, just being together, come to an end with death. All forms of isolation and separation have the same effect: people move for work, families split up, young people travel or study overseas, lockdowns keep us apart.

Jesus Himself offers the most basic reassurance to his friends: I am really here, in the flesh. His fully human presence is evident in how he cooks for them. What could be more ordinary or more reassuring?

Just a few weeks later, Peter can confidently proclaim that he is a witness to Jesus, whom God raised from the dead (Acts 3). Peter met Jesus in the flesh, and ate and drank with him, not a ghost, but truly present. And he knows that Jesus lives, and is still with him, still present.

Christian community means that we are present to each other, we are recognized, we share life together. John writes that when we keep God’s commandments, the love of God is perfected in us (1 John 2). Jesus is present in Christian community, because he is God’s love in person.

Offering our presence to others brings Christ to them. This is our mission – so all might who are lost in fear may know the loving presence of Christ, and Jesus can say to them: “It is I myself. Touch me and see.” (Luke 24)