Christmas is ordinarily the time of year when gifts are exchanged and emphasized in the celebration of the season. The story of the Magi becomes the legend around which we support the giving of gifts during the Christmas holiday, even though the real gift is God sending his Son Jesus to live among us humans in order to bring us the gift of salvation. That salvation has been affected in the Sacred Triduum we celebrated last week, and yet the gifts of Jesus continue throughout the season of Easter. The readings today provide us with an abundance of Jesus' gifts offered to us.
The Gospel reading relates the gift of peace that Jesus offers to his closest followers. In the past days the followers of Jesus lacked peace in their lives. They witnessed the Master being arrested, tried, scourged, and put to death at the hands of the temple authorities and the Romans. Their Messianic expectations based upon false understandings all came crashing down upon them. What is more, the fact that they were close followers of Jesus made them suspects in the eyes of the authorities, and death could be their fate as well. So, the fact of their being together in the upper room with locked doors comes as no surprise on a human dimension. In this context Jesus appears to them and gives them his gift of peace. This gift is the tranquility of spirit needed to be a follower of Jesus, knowing full well that hatred and assault are your guaranteed lot in life. Jesus' peace enables us to carry out our mission to be his followers.
In the second reading we find John describing Jesus' gift of his love. We love God by keeping his commands, and in the Johannine text the commands of God are to love one another as Jesus loved us - unconditionally and to the point of death. In the former Torah code there were various laws governing every aspect of human life. No person ever kept the law completely. One of the gifts of Jesus' life was the fact that in giving the law of love and showing us how to live that law through his example we are now enabled to follow the law of Jesus in a complete way. Thus, the gift of Jesus' love brought us salvation through his sacrificial death on the cross, while at the same time providing us the example we needed to live the law of love in our lives.
The gifts of peace and love find concrete expression in the manner in which the first disciples lived their lives after receiving the ultimate gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They held all things in common, sharing abundantly the possessions they had. War and hatreds exist because we form excessive attachments to our self-interest and our possessions. The first disciples lived in peace and love because they were detached from their possessions and put the interests of others before their own. They provide for us the gift of their example as we seek to model our lives in using Jesus' gifts of peace and love bestowed upon us.
Authentic Christian living does not consist in acquiring large houses in gated suburban communities, nor does it consist in spending large amounts of money solely for ourselves when the needs of others are so acute in our world. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that all are called to live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience; it is not merely for the cleric and religious. Each is called to live these counsels according to their specific state in life. In living these counsels we give concrete, incarnational expression to Jesus' gifts of peace and love. War and hatreds will cease from the earth when we put aside our self-interest and the attachments we have to our possessions so that we live in peace and love through the evangelical counsels.
As we strive to be people of peace and bearers of love in the world as followers of the Lord Jesus, we pray for the insight we need to give concrete expression to the gifts of peace and love. "Let us pray as Christians thirsting for the risen life. Heavenly Father and God of mercy, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life. From the waters of death you raise us with him and renew your gift of life within us. Increase our minds and hearts the risen life we share with Christ and help us to grow as your people toward the fullness of eternal life with you. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen."
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