I
can remember it clearly, because it happened before every single Christmas when
I was a kid. And before every one of his
birthdays, too. My dad, when asked what
he wants for Christmas or his birthday, could be counted on to tell us “All I
want is peace and quiet.” Like
clockwork. “Peace and quiet.”
A
father of seven unruly kids who went to work six days a week as a lawyer and
politician, he probably didn’t get very much “peace and quiet,” and I admit now
that I’m a dad and go off to work each day, I have days when I yearn for a
little “peace and quiet,” too.
We
gave my dad Old Spice. He never did get
peace and quiet.
Peace. We hear it in the first reading from Acts -
how some of the disciples have come down from Judea and are disturbing the
peace with teachings that are apart from the teaching of the Apostle. And Jesus speaks of peace in this
Gospel. Peace is His gift to His
disciples. “Peace I leave with you, my
peace I give to you.”
Reflecting
quite a bit over the past couple weeks about “peace” I realize that I am often not
all that peaceful a person. Oh, I’m not
a violent guy. I don’t own a gun, nor am
I on a waiting list to buy one. And I keep my road rage under control. Well, usually. I guess in my book, violence isn’t a very
good way to solve problems.
But
that kind of peace, the absence of conflict or violence, isn’t what Our Lord is
talking about here. He’s talking about
inner peace, peace in the mind and heart.
And it occurs to me that there are many times when I’m not very peaceful
deep down inside. Perhaps there are
times when you aren’t either.
Now,
that’s an understandable thing – I mean there are a lot of things to be
unpeaceful about these days. To be
stressed out about. Anxious. Worried.
Bombings in Boston, shootings in
Connecticut. Natural disasters. Rapid changes in society, often seeming out of
control. A secular culture that each day
seems to stray farther from the teachings of Jesus and His Church.
And
each of us has crosses in our daily lives to bear. Some small.
Some large. Some perhaps
seemingly unbearable. Sickness. Perhaps chronic illness. Perhaps life threatening. Family, or marital problems perhaps. The loss of dear loved ones. And I could go on.
And
don’t forget the crosses that we bring on ourselves through sin. Especially the sin of pride – a lack of
humility – in my case my being a know-it-all, or wanting to change the world –
change everybody else (rather than the one person I actually can change!). Or maybe
our attachments to the things of this world disrupt our peace. Not as the world gives do I give to you, says
the Lord. The things of this world won’t
give us peace, He tells us.
All
of these things tend to shake our inner peace, our inmost calm. All can bring us down, discourage us, maybe
even depress us. Each one of us, I’ll
bet, comes here today with his or her share of burdens, of distractions, that keep
us from experiencing the peace that Jesus promises us.
What
is it about these things that keeps us from experiencing that peace? Two things come to mind – living in the past,
and living in the future. Rather than
living in the present, the here and now.
Many of us are stuck in the past.
Holding on to hurts, to grudges, refusing forgiveness. Replaying scenes of our lives, over and over
and over again. Always with the same
outcome. Reliving the same frustrations.
And
many of us live perpetually in the future, planning for tomorrow, more likely worried
about everything that might happen, or might not happen.
What
Jesus is saying to you and to me today is this.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or anxious. I am with you today. Right now.
Not in the past. Not in the
future. Right now.
Now
in this Gospel He is preparing the disciples for His departure, for His passion
and death. But He promises them that
they will not be alone. That the Father
will send the Spirit Advocate to them, to come and dwell with them. Each
day, in the present. God with us, and in us.
To teach them and remind them of Jesus’ words.
Jesus
says to us – “don’t obsess about the past.
Or be anxious or worry about the future.
Live in the present, for that is where I Am. Give to me and let go of all that is
troubling you, all that burdens you, all that weighs you down. All that keeps you far from me, all your
sins, all your attachments – give them to me and trust me. Trust me.
Cling to me,” He is telling us. That
is where you will find my peace
The
celebrant begins Mass by saying “Grace to you and peace from God our Father.” Father Paul prays that the “peaceful grace”
of God be ours. After the “Our Father” Father
Paul?Joe will pray these words:
“Deliver
us, O Lord, we pray from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that,
by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all
distress. As we await the blessed hope,
the coming of Our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
And
just before we come to the altar to receive the Eucharist, the Sacrament of
Christ’s presence, the Sacrament of his being with us here and now, we will hear
the words of the Gospel again – “peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”
Let
those words sink in. As we wait for Christ to come again, we pray for the grace
to live free from sin and safe from all distress. To Live in peace.
And
once we experience His peace in our hearts, God living within us, we can’t help
but bring that peacefulness into the world, to our families, friends,
co-workers, everyone we meet. I think of
Father Joe as the example of a truly peaceful person, one who brings peace
everywhere he goes. In the Peanuts
cartoon, the character Pigpen has a cloud of dust and dirt that follows him
everywhere he goes. Father Joe has a
cloud, but it’s a cloud of peacefulness that follows him wherever he goes.
You
and I are called to have that same cloud of peace, and through prayer,
Sacrament and love of neighbor, Christ gives it to us. Imagine the kind of community, the kind of
country, the kind of world we would have if everyone lived in Christ’s
peace.
Obviously,
not everyone is peaceful. But if we,
those who profess Faith in Christ Jesus aren’t the peaceful ones, if we aren’t
the peacemakers, who will be?
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