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Conference spiritual reading chosen by Deacon Steve Pitre
“When the Lord greeted his disciples and friends after his Resurrection, he said, “Shalom” or in English “Peace”. He simply used the Jewish greeting, which meant “Good morning”, or “Good day”, or “Good evening.” But what did this greeting mean on the lips of the risen Jesus?
It was the proclamation of the world’s healing. It meant that the whole plan of the Father had been fulfilled, that the mystery of the kingdom lived now in the universe, that the glory of God was being poured into every atom of creation through the transformed mind, body, heart, and soul of Jesus the Messiah, the risen Son of God.
It meant that all of the broken relationships in the universe had been healed at their root: that our separation from God was no more, that our alienation from one another, our enmities and misunderstandings and all our estrangements were over, that our individual fragmentations had been healed, that our separation from the animals and from all material creation had ended in reconciliation.
Jesus greeting meant that the harmony of God’s perfect order, the fullness of his life, was filling all things as it was meant to at the beginning. Easter is light, radiance, and splendor, clarity, luminosity, and brightness because it is the dawn of the new creation. It is a new day, the eternal day, and Jesus says, “Good morning.””
- by Fr. Bob Pelton, “The Asceticism of Joy,” Restoration, April 2021, Vol. 74, No.4, p. 1, Combermere