SHALOM, PNEUMA & APOSTELLO

Reflections on the Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday): Acts 5:12-16, Revelation 1:9-13,17-19, John 20:19-31

Saint Pope John Paul II, on the occasion of the Great Jubilee year of 2000 and the canonisation of Sr. Faustina, decreed that the Second Sunday of Easter shall be celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday “a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that mankind will experience in the years to come” (23 May 2000). On this 25th Divine Mercy Sunday, the liturgy highlights three gifts that reflect the divine mercy of the Risen Lord.

1. Shalom (Peace as presence):

Thrice in the gospel today, Jesus says to his disciples, ‘Peace be with you’! The gift of peace, encapsulated in the Hebrew concept of Shalom, carries profound biblical, theological and existential relevance. We tend to define peace as the absence of conflict or violence, don’t we? The biblical understanding of Shalom is not merely the absence of something but the presence of God. Jesus promises, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (John 14:27). This ‘alternative’ is a Divine Mercy gift that signifies wholeness, completeness, well-being, and reconciliation that the Risen Christ promises to all creation. The disciples, who were wounded by the violence of Good Friday and the anxiety of Holy Saturday, experience the peace of Easter in the ‘presence’ of the Risen Lord. ‘The Lord is peace’ (Judges 6:24).

Jesus’ shalom heals the disciples’ fear and Thomas’ unbelief. This peace is ordained in creation’s cosmic order (Genesis), experienced in God’s covenantal relationship (Exodus 20), and nourished by fidelity (Ezekiel 34) and justice (Isaiah 32). When disturbed by sin, idolatry, and exile, prophets announce Godes promise of its restoration by the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9&61). This promised peace becomes a reality in the Risen Lord, the peace of God (Philippians 4:7) who restores the well-being and wholeness of his disciples. This embodied Shalom in Christ, which was experienced as a gift of the resurrection, awaits its fulfilment in the restoration of all things (Colossians 1:20).

2. Pneuma (the Holy Spirit as breath): 

In today’s gospel, Jesus breathes on his disciples, and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit (Pneuma meaning both spirit and wind in Greek). Here is a pivotal moment that bridges the creation, the resurrection, and the renewal of all things. As the first fruit of the new creation (1 Corinthians 15:20), the Risen Lord fulfils his promise of the “Helper” (John 14:26) and marks the birth of the Church as a Spirit-empowered community. The breath of Jesus echoes two foundational biblical moments: 1. Genesis 2:7: God breathes “the breath of life” (Hebrew nishmat chayim) into Adam, transforming dust into a living being; 2. Ezekiel 37:9-10: The prophet commands the ”breath” (Hebrew ruach) to revive dry bones, symbolising Israel’s restoration.

By breathing on the disciples, Jesus restores life, signalling that the resurrection is not merely a return to life but the inauguration of a new creation. The Church finds her origin, force, and purpose in Jesus’ breath (pneuma in Greek, meaning both spirit and wind and referring to the Holy Spirit). The Spirit which “hovered over the waters” in creation (Genesis 1:2) brought order and life out of chaos. The same Spirit raises Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11) and now empowers the Church to walk in “newness of life” (Romans 6:4). The Risen Lord, therefore, is the dawn of God’s renewed world, and the Spirit is its guarantor (Ephesians 1:13-14). As the second reading reminds us, the Risen Lord oversees this renewal process which is effective in our history.

3. Apostello (Sent on mission): 

The Risen Lord solemnly entrusts the missionary mandate to His disciples with a profound theological affirmation, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you”. Jesus hands over the beautiful chain of the mission of the Church from the Father to the disciples. This ‘sending’ reflects the Shaliah principle, according to which, an emissary embodies the sender’s full authority, forming one legal entity. The sender’s ministry then becomes our model and paradigm. So much so that Jesus is present in the one who is sent. We have many examples of this in the gospels: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me” (Mt 10:40). In Luke, “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me” (Lk 10:16). Here there is “listening.” In John, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who received anyone whom I send receives me; and he who receives me receives him who sent me” (Jn 13:20).

In this context of the mission of the apostles, Jesus identifies himself with the “child” and with the “little ones”, but it is probable that Jesus used these words here also to describe his apostles, his messengers. As reminded by the pattern of Peter’s mission in the first reading. “A large number of people from the towns bring the sick and the possessed to Peter (5:15) as they did to Jesus and they are all cured” (Luke 4:40, Matthew 15:30, Mark 1:32, John 6:2). We are sent as missionaries of mercy to forgive sins (gospel), preach repentance (Luke 24:47), embody Shalom to heal, serve, and restore, as Jesus did (Matthew 10:7-8), anticipate the Kingdom by signalling the inbreaking of God’s liberating reign (Romans 8:21), and become “ambassadors for Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20), entrusted with the message that “God was reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). May the Risen Christ’s merciful triple gift of Shalom, Pneuma, and apostello enrich our lives and witness.