While they were still speaking about this,
he stood in their midst and said to them,
“Peace be with you.”
But they were startled and terrified
and thought that they were seeing a ghost.
Then he said to them, “Why are you troubled?
And why do questions arise in your hearts?
Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.
Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have.”
And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
Samuel's unhappy appearance to Saul in the medium's tent suggests that the Jews had sometimes heard of ghosts. Their pagan neighbors entertained such ideas; but Jewish law banned necromancy, and Jewish customs ignored it as nonsense. Our Catholic faith still does, as do most Christian religions.
The subject comes up among people with little or no religious knowledge. They think there's an association between faith in Jesus and spiritualism. and that we might know something about it. I give the same answer as when I'm asked about snakes: I think they're all poisonous and I don't fool with any of them.
Saint Luke tells us that the startled disciples of Jesus thought they were seeing a ghost. His appearance was so unexpected and their religion had never taught them that anyone might return from the dead. Why would they expect it? If, as the evangelists tell us, he had spoken of rising from the dead, he might as well have spoken Greek to Shakespeare's Casca. ("It's Greek to me.") If they heard what he said, they supposed it must be some kind of metaphor or a bit of mystical poetry. Obviously, he couldn't mean resuscitation of a corpse that's three days dead.
And who would want to see a dead person? We just don't go there.
But when Jesus appeared suddenly to them, apparently coming through the wall without bothering to use the door or the doorknob, they grasped at an alien straw: "Is it a ghost?" Had they indulged in modern fantasies about flying saucers and UFOs they might have supposed he'd returned from an alien planet, but that foolishness lay in the future. They were, to be sure, astonished out of their wits.
This passage especially contradicts those half-believers who think the Resurrection was only a spiritual experience for those given to such things. Jesus, they say, has left his humanity behind to be neither male nor female, Jew nor gentile, slave or free. (They repurpose Saint Paul's remark about "the baptized who are clothed with Christ" for their own purposes.)
The Jewish religion is not given to idealistic notions of what God should do. They do not suppose he should not be involved in human affairs like politics, economics, war, or reproduction. Our God is deeply engaged in our world. And when the Son of God rises from the dead and takes his place beside the Father's throne, he remains with us as a human being. He rejoices in our blessings, grieves in our sadness, and regrets our sins.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.