Gripped by Fear
“But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled?’”Luke 24:37-38a
After encountering Jesus on the road to Emmaus, the two disciples went back to Jerusalem to tell the others who seem to also have been some news about sightings of the Risen Jesus. The Apostles were still hiding away in the locked upper room. They were afraid. Their Teacher was dead and they knew the leaders will be looking for them next. They were scared. Did they forget about Jesus and all that they had seen and all that Jesus had taught them? Where was their faith? They were gripped by fear.
Even when Jesus appeared to them, they were afraid and terrified. In fact they thought He was a ghost. Perhaps it was the ghosts that haunt their consciences. They knew it was Jesus. He offered them peace. He showed them His hands and feet and wanted to prove to them that it was indeed Him and that He has truly risen and was not a ghost. Jesus had no need to prove to them, and yet He did, not just once but many times.
Jesus did not need to prove to us that He is the Son of God and yet He did by His life. He did not need to prove to us that He loved us, and yet He did by embracing the Cross and dying on it. Jesus did not need to prove to us that He rose from the dead, and yet He did and appeared to so many people after His Resurrection before His ascension. And finally, Jesus did not need to prove to us His promise that He will be with us always, and yet He did and continues to do so everyday — in the Eucharist.
Are there ghosts from our past that causes us to be gripped by fear and shame? Surrender them to Jesus for He has conquered all things, even death and sin. Allow the Light of Christ to cast away those ghosts that paralyze us so that we may live in the freedom that He has won for us.
