Acts 3:11-26 / Luke 24:35-48
The first few words that comes out from the mouth when meeting a person or addressing a group of people are important.
Those words set the stage for the encounter, and it can either put people at ease or make them anxious about what is to come.
So if the first few words are "I have a surprise for you!!!" or "I have news for you" the listeners would start to wonder on the uneasy side.
When the Risen Jesus showed Himself to His disciples, His first words are, "Peace be with you."
Those words would certainly put the disciple at ease because they were were ridden with guilt for deserting Jesus when He was arrested and tortured and died on the Cross.
More so, for someone to come back from the dead was beyond their imagining and so they thought that Jesus a ghost and came to haunt them.
So let us calm our hearts so that the words that come out from our lips will be words of peace that will put others at ease.
May our words also be words of love so that our Risen Lord will speak to others through us.