Today's is the gospel of the account of Christ's appearance to the disciples after the brilliant gospel of the journey on the road to Emmaus. Christ appears in the famous "Upper Room." (Apparently the building was well known and the area preserved after the fall of Jerusalem with buildings, then churches.) Christ reaffirms His existence, interestingly with touch but, more importantly, with sharing food. This idea of social and communal eating is found throughout the gospels and is telling. He also reaffirms the importance of the prophesies of the Old Testament.
His greeting is a variation of the same theme: He again used: "Peace be to you" (--reminiscent of the famous "Peace be to this house.") St. Francis thought the recurring greeting so important that he made it mandatory among his followers, much to their distaste because it was so pointedly unusual. The modern church "sign of peace" is an effort to recapture this feeling but it has been a hard sell; even Annie Dillard, trying her best, says it "can be tricky." If such a greeting can be so hard to establish, one can only imagine the difficulty it will be to achieve.
His greeting is a variation of the same theme: He again used: "Peace be to you" (--reminiscent of the famous "Peace be to this house.") St. Francis thought the recurring greeting so important that he made it mandatory among his followers, much to their distaste because it was so pointedly unusual. The modern church "sign of peace" is an effort to recapture this feeling but it has been a hard sell; even Annie Dillard, trying her best, says it "can be tricky." If such a greeting can be so hard to establish, one can only imagine the difficulty it will be to achieve.
No comments:
Post a Comment