Variety: Luke 24v36

“Peace be with you” was the greeting of Jesus to the apostles at his sudden appearance among them. They were in a locked room in Jerusalem (Luke 24:36; John 20:19), and behind them was the stupendous fact of the resurrection. Was this a ghost? To reassure them, Jesus showed them his pierced side and the marks of the nails on his hands and his feet. On this momentous meeting, he breathed on them the power of the Holy Spirit and commissioned them to preach in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 

“Peace be with you”: What more beautiful greeting can believers carry outside church walls to all we meet in daily life? 

Wishing peace is wishing the highest good that life can offer. The traditional greeting in Hebrew is shalom (peace). Salaam, the word for peace, is the salutation in Arabic. In Korean, the age-old greeting [annyeong haseyo] is also concerned with peace. The peacemaker can wish it to those who are like-minded or not, to all children of God anywhere, everywhere, in season and out. 

Whatever the turmoil, whatever the divisions among humankind, whatever the violence, the followers of Jesus who have accepted his commission can refuse to be moved from his transcendent message of peace. May there come a time when the church, as a peace church without any ties to violence, may greet the human family with the words, “Peace be with you.” 

Eileen Egan