On these Sundays late in Eastertide, swirling around the Solemnities of Ascension and Pentecost as they do, we hear passages taken from Saint John’s Gospel known as Our Lord’s “Farewell Discourse.” This sacred “pep talk” is borrowed from the Lord’s speech at the Last Supper. It is filled with prayers, predictions and promises.
Last week the Lord spoke of the centrality of love. This week He speaks of the importance of peace. Next week He will instruct us in the promise of prayer. So today, we will consider the Lord’s gift of Peace, of which He will speak to us again on the Feast of Pentecost.
When the Lord speaks to us of peace today, He describes it thus: “…not as the world gives peace…” So, how does the world give peace? In a number of ways: economic security, political/military power, Constitutional guarantees of freedom, and interpersonal harmony through adherence to the Law, to name a few. These are all good, but they’re ultimately exterior — outside of ourselves — bringing a peace achieved through circumstance.
But the Lord is speaking to us about something existential, interior, a worldview based in Grace, not so much achieved as experienced. This being said, we know that we cannot take interpersonal peace for granted; we have to work toward it. It’s not so much an act of the Will, such as love can be. It generally comes as the fruit of a different act of the will: as Pope Saint Paul VI said in an address to the United Nations sixty years ago, “If you seek peace, work for justice.” Nor can true peace be gained through a passive act of tolerance or appeasement — that is — the avoidance of conflict. Acceptance of evil does not create virtue, nor does it lead to holiness.
Establishing peace can be hard work, coming on the far side of conflict where simple and/or ultimate truths are faced and spoken. After all, the Lord said in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers, not simply the peace lovers.
When the Lord speaks of Peace, He uses the Hebrew word “Shalom,” which indicates more than an absence of malice, a cessation of hostilities, or avoidance of conflict. Shalom peace comes from knowing God… knowing who I am in relation to God… and acceptance of Truth, all of which bring hope for everlasting life.
The beginnings of the search for peace are found in admitting a certain lack of peace, just as the beginning of relaxation comes from the admittance of tension that needs to be addressed. Peace comes through an acceptance of Truth amid the shifting reality of who we are, changing from moment to moment in our lives, given over to the eternal Truth of the unchanging God who loves us in every moment.
Perhaps the least effective means of transmitting the Peace of Christ comes during the Sign of Peace within the Sacred Liturgy, which was removed during the pandemic and has not been officially reinstated. This is why I’ve not been introducing it as I had done previously. I don’t miss it, honestly, because it has always seemed to me to be shallow and perfunctory. I think it would be better placed in the Penitential Rite or removed from the flow of the Sacred Liturgy altogether, as we might greet one another before entering the Church proper, perhaps in the vestibule or even in the parking lot. But the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops has not consulted me in this matter, so we will continue with the discontinuation.
The Lord speaks not only of Peace as a means of getting by in the world, but also of love, as the context in which His Peace is realized. Love is the ultimate work of the Holy Spirit, teaching us and reminding us of the Lord’s love for us so that our hearts will not be troubled or afraid when God seems distant or even absent. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, Saint John told us last week that “God’s dwelling is with the human race.” But today the Lord makes this relationship even more personal, saying, “My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” There can be no thought greater or more profound than this that could bring us lasting peace.
May the Lord, then, grant us Peace as a product of His love. May we, too, become instruments of the Lord’s Peace, beyond our simple greetings, in our works of mercy, justice and charity. Let our prayers for peace in Ukraine spill over into our own politics, local and national, so that, reverencing the Presence of God in other people, even in one’s political adversaries, the Peace of God’s Kingdom may reign in our hearts, in our Church, in our community, and then move beyond us throughout the world, so that the world that seems to know only the absence of God will come to know His Presence, as we strive to live in His sacred Peace.