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Before the fall, Adam and Eve were never afraid. Fear is the absence of Trust in a loving and protecting God. In a world filled with sin, we sinners will fear. And, regardless of what behavioral psychologists say, fear is a sin. The only thing the First Commandment tells us to fear is God Himself. Had the Disciples truly believed their Masters' words, predictions, and Gospel, they would not have been huddled together like rats awaiting the exterminator. If you believed perfectly, there would never be a moments hesitation, due to the fears of rejection and embarrassment, that would keep you from sharing Christ with all you come into contact with.

Fear of the Jews; that is, fear of arrest, humiliation, torture and death...was banished with the reappearance of the Bodily Savior. He showed His resurrection, His victory, the proof that all His Words could be believed, by His Bodily Presence in the upper room on Easter eve.

Your own fears, as individualized as they may be due to your own uniqueness, are similar to other's fears. We all fear due to our shared human condition as sinners. Your fears are all chased away by the Bodily Presence of the same Savior.

Yes, He first gives them all, His Word...His Words: "Peace be unto you." And, had God wanted that to be enough, it would have more than sufficed. He gave them more.

He showed them the "campaign ribbons," the trophies, of His victorious war against hell and death. He presented to them the very Body that was spiked to the cross for them; the very holes in His flesh that had bled for them. He let them touch and handle, in a totally physical way, what they had already eaten and drunk in a "sacramental" way the previous Thursday night. That is the only peace there ever is, ever could be.

Earthly peace, like family peace, or peace on the job-sight, comes and goes. Peace with God, means that one has been justified innocent of all law-breaking; innocent of all sin in thought, word and deed, innocent because the God/Man Jesus became guilty for you...paid the ultimate penalty. The only real and lasting peace (a peace that is everlasting) is the peace that comes in the Lamb's Blood and in the Body of the Passover victim. He is called the Prince of Peace by the angelic throng on the night of His Incarnation for a reason.

No Body, no Blood...no peace.

The Lord loves His own so much, that He always wants you all to have just what the Disciples had on those two precious nights (Maundy Thursday & Easter evening).

He had already instituted the Sacrament of the Altar--the New Testament which would last forever. Now on this occasion he would establish the Office of The Holy Ministry wherein His chosen representatives would in perpetuity be charged with distributing His Peace to all His flock; by giving out His Bodily Presence. The 10 (Thomas would have to wait one more week) would be specially ordained. They received the Holy Spirit, not in a better way than we all do in Holy Baptism, but in a different way which would bind them to their servanthood role in a special way: "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." That is to be "in the stead, and by the command." This is the office of bishop and teacher; to be Christ's voice and hands for all the rest of the brethren. To speak Jesus' soothing words of absolution: "your sins are forgiven;" to place into your very midst the Easter Warrior, triumphant and alive: "Take eat, the Body of Jesus given for you...take drink the Blood of Christ shed for you."

They touched His wounds, they handled His body that fateful evening...they had their fear taken away. They had Peace.

You are like Thomas. You weren't there, but you hear the voice of those who were; you hear it in their stories written down. Unlike Thomas, you receive no visual confirmation of the testimony of the 10 (or even of the witness of the later Evangelists). But your faith nonetheless feasts on the same Bodily Presence in the same Holy Supper. You hear His forgiveness; you taste His Mercy; you touch and handle Him in Holy Communion. You have Peace.