Chotard Doll

Dear Friends,

In this week of Easter, we marvel at the Resurrection and what it means to each of us personally, and to the world we live in.

The disciples must have been gasping for breath in these first days after the Resurrection. The gospels describe them as terrified for their lives, fearful of the Roman law, and doubting that Jesus was alive again.

But Jesus appears to them, and says, Peace. And that strikes me as the dominant gift of the Resurrection. The Peace of God which passes all understanding and all rational inquiry is the best word I know for describing the gift that Resurrection life brings.

In the midst of all my terrors, my fears, and my doubts Jesus is present and says to me, Peace. As I study the Bible, he opens my mind to the scriptures, as he did to those disciples.

The peace he brings to the disciples and to us is not what we might like to imagine peace to be. It is unsettling, demanding, and for the disciples it often brings a martyr’s death. Nevertheless, it is peace to die for.

Because the peace that Jesus brings is a peace which permeates the soul and underlies every thought and action. And it is a foretaste of the peace of eternal life in God’s Kingdom.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen; the Lord is risen indeed.

Faithfully,

—Chotard