2 Sunday Easter, Year A, John 20:19-31

Peace – The Scarlet and the Black – Gregory Peck as Monsignor O'Flaherty, Christopher Plummer playing the Commander of Nazi forces in Rome, Colonel Kappler – Kappler worries for his family's safety from vengeful partisans, and, in a one-to-one meeting with O'Flaherty, asks him to save his family, appealing to the same values that motivated O'Flaherty to save so many others. The Monsignor, however, refuses, disbelieving that after all the Colonel has done and all the atrocities he is responsible for, he would expect mercy and forgiveness automatically, simply because he asked for it, and departs in disgust. The figure of Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, attending the Beatification of John Paul II is presented in a similar way in our own time.

War – In our own time: Lybia, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq – War as the opposite of Peace

Tyre meets the road – Are we people of peace or people of war? Our language, jokes, songs, prejudices all tell us who we are, the person of war that we harbour in our hearts? Or do we seek to harbour radical peace?

Peace is radical, it is much more difficult to achieve than war. It is complex. In "The Scarlet and the Black" as the Allies enter Rome, Monsignor O'Flaherty joins in the celebrations of the liberation, and somberly toasts those who did not live to see it.

Eventually Colonel Kappler is captured and questioned by the Allies. During his interrogation, he is informed that his wife and children were smuggled out of Italy and escaped unharmed into Switzerland. Upon being asked who helped them, Kappler realizes that it must be O'Flaherty, but responds simply that he does not know.

Radical peace is a difficult thing to achieve.

In the film "Karol: A Man Who Became Pope", Piotr Adamcyzk plays the character of Karol Wojtyla and Ken Duken plays the character of Adam Zielinski. Adam is a student of Fr Karol's at Lublin University and he gradually inserts himself into the group of young intellectuals that Fr Karol gathers around himself. Adam, it turns out, is a Communist Spy, working on behalf of the Communist government.

The story takes a twist when, at a certain point in the film, Adam climbs up over the confessional that Fr Karol uses and inserts a microphone to record the conversations that occur there.

Later on, Adam tell his commander that Fr Karol has never spoken against the Communist government, even in the confines and sacred seal of the confessional. He has never instigated or condoned any action that amounted to uprising. This is, by any standards, quite amazing.

This is portrayed in the film as the way by which Fr Karol became a bishop because of the Polish government's view of him as one who would not lead an uprising, as one who had never spoken against them, and finally as a member of the working class rather than the traditional noble background of the Archbishop of Krakow.

It should be obvious to us all that being people of peace, and being authentically true to that peace at all times has a radical quality to it that can really change our world and make it a better place. And, it should be just as obvious to us that we are unable to achieve that peace on our own. We are like the disciples locked in the room of fear. It requires the Lord Jesus himself to break through those locks of fear to inspire us with the words: Peace be with you.

These are the words that we share with one another just before we receive communion. We take these words of the Lord, and pray them to each other, declaring ourselves to be people of peace, just as the Lord is the Lord of peace. "Peace be with you" means that we are not jealous, we do not covet our neighbours goods; "Peace be with you" means that we honour ourselves and we honour the other person; "Peace be with you" means that we are people of love entering into the most profound relationship of love that is available to us.

Peace be with you.