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Our reading from John's Gospel today is the only one that you'll find in the four Gospels that tells the story of Jesus coming back to see his disciples (specifically Thomas) who had not believed his fellow disciples when they reported that Jesus had indeed come back from the dead. That story leaves in the English lexicon the phrase, "doubting Thomas." And that reminds me of a story of somebody who also did not really heed the call that Jesus was present.

Once upon a time, there was a man named Tom, and Tom was a burglar. One night, he broke into a house, knowing that the family was away on a vacation. And as he stood in the darkness, waiting for eyes to get used to the gloom, he was aware of a presence in the room. And all of a sudden he heard a high, shrill voice saying, "Jesus is here!" And he was shocked! He was frozen in fear! And he heard the voice again, "Jesus is here!" Now curious, and he wasn't really a believer, he turned on his flashlight, and turned it in the direction of where he heard the sound, and low and behold there was a birdcage with a parrot in it, and his light shown on the cage, he saw the parrot say, "Jesus is here!" Now regaining his composure and his bravado, he cussed at the bird, and he said, "This very night you are going to be cat food!" And after a few moments, he became aware that, no, there was still another presence in the room. So he shone his flashlight slowly throughout the house. And he saw there in the corner was a big, black dog with sharp, white fangs, and it was baring its teeth at him. The last thing he remembered hearing was the high, shrill voice saying, "Sick him, Jesus!" (Laughter.)

Now, I tell you that funny story as a counterpoint to the real message of the Gospel. Because we can imagine what we might have felt like if we were Jesus, after the crucifixion after the death, coming back to visit our disciples. "These disciples! You know, I picked out 12 specially chosen men, I spent three of my last years of life teaching them and bringing them with me, and letting them observe how I fed the hungry, cured the sick, fed them, allowed them to be my disciples, to have some of my power? And in my darkest hours, as I was up on the cross, all of them deserted me!" Now, in John's Gospel, it says that John was left, John stayed - but no, the other disciples were all gone! In fact, one of the disciples, Judas, was responsible for Jesus being in this predicament! Now, what kind of an attitude do you think Jesus might have had? Wouldn't it seem right to us that he could very well be angry? He could very well have words of condemnation to give to his disciples? It kind of reminds me of a t-shirt that I saw at Fisherman's Wharf - it said (indicating front of shirt), "Jesus is coming." And on the back it said, "Boy is He Mad!"

But, the Gospel says that's not where Jesus was at all. When Jesus comes and sees his disciples after his crucifixion, after his resurrection, the first words out of his mouth are, "Peace be with you. Peace be with you." And in Hebrew he would have said, "Shalom. Shalom." And so I think we should take a look at that word, "shalom," and really try to define that, so we understand exactly what Jesus was saying. Shalom does not mean simply the absence of war and violence - shalom means the restoration of all things the way they are supposed to be, the reintegration of relationships and situations so that they all work for the good. And so some examples might be, let's say you have a watch that's broken and you bring it to a watchmaker to repair. When he repairs it, he brings shalom to that watch. Or let's say you know of someone who's really sick and really ill, and they regain their health - they're restored to full health of body and mind. Shalom has come to them. Or let's say there's a situation of great injustice, and finally people see the light and they strive to work with one another to correct those injustices and live in peace with one another - shalom has come to that group of people.

What Jesus is saying to his disciples, who are very much afraid and I'm sure now feel very disheartened that they've let down their master, their teacher, their friend, is, "Shalom. I want to restore my relationship of friendship and love with you. You don't have to say a word. I say it first - shalom." And in this troubled day and age, I think it's really important to grab on to that concept, because we see sin operative in the world. Sin manifesting itself in terms of disunity, in terms of broken relationships and fighting. We read in the newspaper or see on TV every single day stories about people who injure or kill one another, stories that families or friends or communities that are in conflict with one another. And it gets played out at the national level. Over the last two or three weeks, we've heard story after story of what's going on in the Middle East - Palestinians attacking Israelis, Israelis retaliating. In our history here, after September 11, when Muslim extremists brought their wrath and devastation and death into our homeland, we brought it right back to them. And I think about five years ago, half a million people in Rwanda died, as that internecine tribal warfare between the Hutus and the Tutsis took place, and so many people died at each other's hands. And it wasn't more than ten years ago that about a quarter of a million Bosnians and Serbians were at each other's throats and killing each other because of ethnic rivalries and disagreements. So we have to ask ourselves as good Christians, "Well how do we break the cycle of seemingly unending violence?" And Jesus gives the solution as he talks to his disciples.

First, he says, "Shalom. Peace be with you." And then, he tells his disciples to forgive one another, to give forgiveness to other people. And that's such a very important concept for us to also understand. I don't think that there's a person who has not experienced some sense of disappointment, letdown, or even betrayal in their life from either people, or situations, or institutions. Can I see a show of hands of anybody who's not experienced any disappointment, letdown or betrayal in their life at all? Raise your hand? (No one.) OK. That proves the point. So we walk around, many of us, as wounded people. With a sense of wanting to maintain MY rights, wanting to maintain my own integrity, wanting to make sure that I'm OK - doesn't matter about anybody else. But what Jesus says is, we have to get beyond that. And he tells his disciples, "As I have forgiven you, you also now must forgive." And it is a very hard thing to do, because all of us carry inside ourselves some dark corners in our lives and our memories and our history, where we feel perhaps some anger, some resentment, some bitterness about injustices that were done to us, hurts that other people perpetrated against us - but Jesus asks us to go ahead and still forgive anyway. It's a really tall order.

I read a book by an English author a long time ago, and he made this funny remark. He said, "Scratch a Christian, and you find a savage!" And I thought to myself, "Hm! What's he saying there?" And the more I thought about it, the more I realized, "Oh, yeah, maybe there's a kernel of truth in that." Because let's take for example all of us - we started Mass today smiling at each other, shaking each other's hands; when Mass is over and we go to that parking lot and somebody gets in our way, grr grr grr! Out come the fangs sometimes, if not in words or expression, maybe in thought! So we're called to really look at ourselves and say, "Where do I need to be transformed in this after-Easter season? Yes, the Lord is resurrected, yes the Lord has come back, I am also called to be resurrected in every aspect of my spirituality, every aspect of my thinking, every aspect of how I work and act in the world." And so Jesus asks us to do something very hard - to go out and forgive one another.

He says in Scripture, "God allows the rain to fall on the good and the bad alike, because God loves everyone." And so although it might seem a tall order for us to have that same sense of forgiveness and compassion and patience with one another, Jesus never gives us a commission, never gives us a mission, without giving us the wherewithal to succeed and be victorious. As we think, in our own minds and in our hearts, about situations where we've had a hard time forgiving somebody or something that's happened, we're called to take the grace of God's flashlight in with us into those dark rooms, those dark corners, and when we see those demons, we can say confidently, "Sick 'em, Jesus!"

Jesus wants us to be a people who live in harmony with one another. And although it might seem a tall order at different times, especially in the kind of national angst and anguish that we're all still facing and recovering from, the good news is that Jesus will never stop being our ally in this grand mission. As we come to receive the Eucharist this day, day by day throughout this week strive to become closer to God through our daily prayer and through our reading of Scripture, Jesus is transforming us more and more to be a people of forgiveness, of patience, of love, and hope. Amen!