2nd Sunday of Easter Mystery of the Resurrection--freedom from the past

Do we know the phrase, “playback loop” or “feedback loop”

It refers to a continued repetition, in which sound, or information, whatever gets played over and over and over.  

It’s that song that stuck in your head that you can’t it out. (never going to give you up, never going to let you down...)

It’s that memory that comes back over and over.

It’s that regret of a choice that keeps on coming back…”I wish I hadn’t done that.  I wish I hadn’t done that.”

Ultimately these loops are not good.  

They keep us in the past.  They keep us focused on the mistake, the sin.

They keep us standing still, and for some they paralyze us emotionally and spiritually.

The Resurrection ends the playback loop of our lives, and will move us forward to wholeness; when we give into the mystery of the resurrection.

Shalom, in Hebrew, means peace, but not peace as in the lack of violence, or having mere contentment;  Shalom means to have peace through wholeness.

When Jesus enters the upper room, on the first night after his resurrection and brings Peace, he offers, or invites the disciples to wholeness.

He invites them to a new life in which past mistakes, in which sin has no power over them.

He invites us to have wholeness as well.

Jesus does not come with guilt or shame for what had happened to him.

He does not appear to the disciples, who are locked in a room out of fear, and accuse them of failure.

He has no interest in replaying their sins, he has no interest in punishing.

His only wish for them is wholeness.

Jesus’ only wish for us is wholeness.

We all make mistakes, we all sin.  

And we are also victims of other’s sins and mistakes

We all have a choice, we can remain in that sin, and playback again and again, and punish ourselves, and punish others…

Building up the anger, resentment until it turns into the poison of hate and violence, and death.

Or

We can ask and accept God’s forgiveness, break out of that loop, and move forward to wholeness.

Because if God did not punish humanity for killing his Son...then God will not punish us for anything.

God’s only desire is mercy and our movement forward to wholeness.

To be honest, I see way too many of us, and I see it myself, choosing the first option. Sometimes blatantly, often subtly.

I see too many of us caught up in anger, in guilt and shame...using past mistakes to beat ourselves up, or using other’s past mistakes against them.

All it does it create a cycle of death.

Death in relationships.

Death in the joys of life.

Figuratively we will kill others, through our words and attacks

And literally death, as people will literally kill each other over perceived mistakes, wounds, and grievances.  

Look at the violence that can abound because of it.

Wholeness, Shalom is God’s desire for us.  God wishes us to be whole, as God is whole.

This comes through forgiveness.  It comes through mercy. It comes through love.

It does not mean that we ignore our hurts, Jesus did not.  His wounds were present. Yet, he used them to show the disciples, Thomas, new possibilities.

I am wounded, I hurt.  You are all wounded, and are hurt.  

We can’t ignore it.  We admit it, accept it, honor it, but realize that those wounds do not own us.  

We are God’s children, and we are invited to something better.

We chose to be God’s children, and move forward, to live in that wholeness.

I have also witnessed people who have accepted forgiveness and gave that forgiveness...and ohhhh the peace these people have found.

It is a joy they have experienced, of being able to let Go!

A relief they have felt.

This is God’s will for us.

And this will is made real in the Eucharist that we share, week after week.

We are created for and intended for wholeness, and eternity of wholeness.

Will we grasp it, or hold onto a past?