Gospel: Luke 24:35-48

 

In these days after Easter, the Gospel texts narrate the apparitions of Jesus. At the beginning, in the first years after the death and the Resurrection of Jesus, the Christians were concerned with defending the Resurrection through the apparitions. They themselves, the living community, were a great apparition of the Risen Jesus. 

 

But in the measure in which the criticism of the enemies against the faith in the Resurrection increased, and that internally, and as there arose criticism and doubts concerning diverse functions in the community, they began to recall the apparitions

 

There are two types of apparitions: those which stress the doubts and the resistance of the disciples in believing in the Resurrection, and those who call attention to the orders of Jesus to the disciples – men and women – conferring some mission to them. 

 

The first ones respond to criticisms from the outside. These show that Christians are not credulous persons. They themselves had many doubts in believing in the Resurrection. The others respond to the criticism from within and establish the community functions and tasks, not on human qualities which are debatable, but on the authority and orders received from the Risen Jesus. 

 

The apparitions of Jesus in today’s Gospel put together two different aspects: the doubts of the disciples and the mission to announce and to forgive received from Jesus.