"On the evening of that day, the first day after the sabbath, the doors were locked where the disciples were, because of their fear of the Jews, but Jesus came and stood in their midst.
"He said to them, `Peace be with you'; then he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples kept looking at the Lord and were full of joy." (John 20: 19-20.)
That all happened 2,000 years ago, but history keeps repeating itself. The disciples were afraid, so they locked the doors. Fear seems to make us do the craziest of things, pushes us up all sorts of dark alleys. Fear can make us so unreasonable at times.
Easter saw a great exodus from our cities and towns. The weather may not have been the best, but the holiday weekend did herald the beginning of serious summer outdoor activity.
On one particular Kerry beach, which has been desolate all winter, suddenly the sea was crowded with surfers. If all those surfers had a different skin colour, had they all been "refugees" from other cultures, there would have been uproar in the local villages. The cry would have gone out that "they" were taking over our beaches.
Some weeks ago in Dublin's Dorset Street, I saw two teenagers break into a car. If they had they happened to be "refugees", the incident certainly would have made the newspapers.
And what about all those brown paper bags and plastic bags that we are hearing about? Had the crooks been "refugees", just think of the outcry we would have heard.
Just as the disciples closed their doors, 2,000 years later we are experts at closing doors on people and ideas. And we can find the finest and most intelligent reasons for so doing.
Fear is part of our self-preservation. But it can also run wild and make us scared of anything that is new and everything that involves change and difference. We are creatures of habit but so often our bad habits can be the cause of our ruin.
The disciples were scared, so scared that they closed the doors. Closing doors solves nothing; usually it makes the situation worse. When we refuse to listen to new ideas and ways of doing things, we are eventually left behind and in the end new cultures and systems take over. And that should be evident right now in an Ireland filled with corruption and wrong-doing.
But there is never any need to leave the doors closed. As believers in the resurrection we place our hope in the Risen Lord. On that Easter Day, the closed doors did not stop Jesus getting to the disciples and showing them his hands and his side. The peace that he spoke about filled them with joy.
And it is in the peace and joy that the Risen Lord offers us that we find our ultimate fulfilment and freedom. There is always the temptation to run off in other directions, but that inevitably leads to culs-de-sac. And then the dreaded fear hits us and we are back to blaming the "refugees" or whatever group is the current scapegoat for all our woes.
We are living in the times of the Risen Lord and if we are convinced of that, fear should not be part of our vocabulary. Nor should we allow the vendors of fear to pry on our weaknesses. We are made for better things.
We are the children of the resurrection.