In our Gospel this weekend the disciples are meeting soon after the crucifixion of Jesus, when, all of a sudden he appears in their midst. The fact that he comes suddenly, although the doors were locked, indicates that his  presence is now of a different kind. He wishes them peace. It is the ordinary Jewish greeting of ‘Shalom’ but one which has special meaning in this Easter context. Before his Passion Jesus had told his disciples, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. Not as the world do I give it to you…” (John 14:27). In spite of what they had heard, they are terrified and think they are seeing a ghost. “What are you afraid of?”  Jesus asks them. He shows them his pierced hands and feet. The Greeks mocked at the idea of bodily resurrection but Luke emphasises the physical reality of Christ’s risen body, that is, the wholeness of the person of the risen Jesus. He invites them to come and touch him. Ghosts do not have flesh and bones. As he shows them the wounds in his hands and feet their fear turns to a mixture of joy and utter astonishment. They can’t believe their eyes. Jesus has to ask them to give him something to eat. Ghosts don’t eat and Jesus is no ghost, he is no disembodied soul. There is also an emphasis that death is not an escape from the body but that the whole person goes into the next life. Jesus then goes on to explain, as he did with the Emmaus disciples, how all that had happened to him was fully in harmony with and the fulfilment of the Law, the prophets and psalms. Mentioning the three constituent parts of the Old Testament Jesus indicates that the Messiah was foretold through the whole of the Hebrew scriptures. We too meet as disciples of Jesus at every mass – the Jesus who comes among us in Word and Sacrament. Lets pray this weekend that we, like those first disciples, might be transformed by the risen Christ. Fr John