Scripture speaks often of God’s desire to give his people “peace”. Psalm 85 says that God promises peace to his people. Psalm 29 says, “The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.” Paul tells the Galatians that the fruits of the Spirit are “love, joy, goodness, faithfulness, and peace” Isaiah prophecies that the Messiah will be called “Wonder-Counselor and Prince of Peace”
You can tell when people are filled with the peace of God. The holiest people I’ve met have been the most peaceful, peace surrounds them like cloak. I think the opposite is also true; most of us have met people that seem surrounded by a cloud of distress, bitterness, unhappiness; drama and chaos and division follow them everywhere. We speak of people having a chip on their shoulder, their lack of peace, having a physical reality. Perhaps, you’ve met someone who has allowed grief to turn into anger at the world or anger at God and that anger just exudes from them.
In the Gospel, Jesus offers peace to those who believe in him: peace the world cannot give, peace which banishes fear. This is not to say that when we believe in and follow Jesus, our fears and anxieties simply evaporate. Jesus leads us on a journey of peace.
Pope Benedict wrote that “Real peace can only be brought by release from the captivity of comfortable lies and the acceptance of suffering. Repression is the most common cause of mental illness and healing can be found only in a descent into the suffering of truth.”
Jesus leads us on a journey of peace which involves acknowledging the truth of our suffering. So that person who has allowed grief to turn into anger, Jesus will lead to confront that grief and teach them to bear it with grace. The person with the resentment, Jesus will help them confront the resentment, to be honest about it, and to be released from it. He helps us face our comfortable lies, the lies we tell ourselves so that we don’t have to face our sufferings. He will help us, if we let him, to confront the truth of why we are so angry with certain family members, or neighbors, or politicians...and to know his peace.
I would add that many addictions come from burying pain under a pile of lies, and freedom from that addiction comes only when we allow Jesus to lead us through the lies, to the root of the pain.
For facing our sufferings is the only real road to healing which is the only real road to peace. It is a peace which is beyond all understanding, at least the understanding of the world. The world tells us, if we’ve been hurt, we should be angry, we should get revenge, we should seek worldly justice, we should claim our victimhood. Jesus shows us, how people of faith can know peace even while nailed to a cross.
May the Lord Jesus, the Prince of Peace free us from the captivity of our comfortable lies and make us into instruments of his peace for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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For lasting peace throughout the world: Christ, the Prince of Peace will put an end to all enmity and division, and unify the peoples of the world.
For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and consecrated religious life, and for the 8 men who will be ordained priests this Friday for our diocese.
That civil leaders will use their authority to protect the dignity of human life and the well-being of the poor, especially the unborn. We pray to the Lord.
For deliverance from all evil and all temptation: for those under the influence of drug abuse, addiction, insanity, occultism, atheism, sexual perversion, and any spiritual evils which degrade the human person.
For those experiencing any kind of hardship or sorrow, isolation or illness, and that the Lord may grant his gift of peace to those most in need of it.
O God, who know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.
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