Live Greater Peace My Friends…

Mar 24, 2008

“Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘peace be with you!’” (Jn 20:19)

May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ reign in your hearts this Easter season! I have to tell you, I am so fired up about all that is going on. We survived Lent, the crowning moment of the Church’s year has come and we are left with a true reality of Easter peace and hope.  The truth of this message brings a smile to my face as I hope it does to yours - I want to yell from the roof tops that our Lord is risen! Who’s with me? The neighbors might look at you weird but that is what this season is all about. Our Lord has conquered death and has risen from the dead…who are you sharing that with?

The fruit of the Easter season is endless. The depth of the story, humanity of the characters, and the implications that the passion and death of our Lord has on our faith and world is worth reflecting upon. Experiencing the Triduum and Easter Sunday today I was personally captivated by the Lord’s first words to his disciples, “Peace be with you!”  What is this peace that Lord is speaking of? What does it look like in our lives?

When I think of peace I can’t help but smile and think about some of the “one-liners” that our culture has coined with the whole notion of peace. Take for instance the following:

Peace in the Middle East
Peace my brother
Peace hommie
Peace out!
(add your own to the list!)
 
These speak of peace but I am not quite convinced that these one-liners capture the weight and fullness of what our Lord was granting or wishing. “Peace be with you.” In this gift of peace the Lord is not the leader of anti-war rally or a hippie holding two fingers up making the peace sign. Also, he is not the leader of a gang hoping for peace in the hood. While the Lord is not for violence or war and wants peace in the hood, the peace the Lord longs to gives us transcends all that our world tells us peace is.

The peace the Lord gives is the gift of Himself. The peace the Lord gives is a grace and gift that will transform our lives. This peace strengthens us as the Lord conquered death. This peace assures that in all that goes on in our lives and the world that the Lord will have the last word and all is subject to Him as King and Savior of the world.  This peace affirms us that the Lord loves us unconditionally, even to suffer and die for us on the cross. The peace prepares us to live, suffer, and die with great hope and confidence in heaven and a better place that awaits us. This peace redeems war, injustice, abortion, abuse, mental illness, loneliness, despair, and all that plagues our vulnerable humanity.  “Peace be with you!”

The Easter season reminds us that this peace the Lord longs to give us is not found apart from Him. Peace in the Middle East is not going to be found apart from Him. Peace in our cities, schools, and families is not going to be found apart from him. Peace in our world is not going to be found apart from the ONE who made the world, died for the world, and redeemed the world.

The peace our hearts long for is what the Lord wants to give us this Easter. In the Mass, the other Sacraments, in the Sacred Scriptures, in one another and in the Church is where the fountain of this peace flows in abundance. As the disciples were overwhelmed with the Lord appearing to them after his Resurrection, may we too be captivated by His gift of peace, embrace it in our lives, and be truly changed by the Lord who has risen from the dead.

Be at peace,

Rusty

Question: Reflect on the peace the Lord gives us in our life…