“Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
What is peace? Blessed are the peacemakers, the Lord teaches in his great Sermon on the Mount, for they shall obtain peace. But what is peace?
The ancient Roman word for peace, from which our English word derives, is pax: p-a-x.
The golden age of Ancient Roman history was called the Pax Romana—Roman Peace—about a 200 year span of empire-wide stability sustained by the far-reaching power and military might of the Roman Emperor. For the ancient Romans, peace is maintained through law and order backed by military might. A rebellion arises, restore peace by sending out the troops. Political enemies arise, either suppress them temporarily with a peace treaty, or deal with them permanently through force and violence. Peace comes from an absence of war. Is that what the Lord means by peace?
Well, sort of. Afterall, through his death and resurrection, the Lord brought victory over those powers at war with God: evil, sin and death. Jesus entering the upper room, announces that the war is over, the war has been won, the pax Christi—the new era of the peace of Christ has begun. Human souls at odds with God through unbelief, willfulness, and selfishness, can now enter into this peace treaty with God—the eternal covenant achieved not through military means, but through the shedding of the blood of the spotless lamb. When we imitate Him in surrendering our wills to God, we can know peace.
And yet, when the Lord entered the upper room, he didn’t greet his confused disciples in latin. He did not say, “pax vobiscum”. Rather, he likely greeted them with the Hebrew word for peace, which you’ve probably heard before. “Shalom”
The biblical Hebrew word Shalom means peace that comes from wholeness and goodness and blessedness. Shalom is not just the absence of hostility, but rather the establishment of lasting, righteous well-being. Blessed are the peacemakers, those who work to establish the physical, emotional, material, and spiritual well-being of others. If you work for this sort of peace, the Lord promises you will experience this sort of peace.
The Lord entering the upper room is announcing that the peace of the kingdom of God—lasting spiritual well-being is now available to his disciples. Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, not as the world gives, do I give it. The world promises this sort of peace, but it cannot deliver. It can only offer artificial substitutes that leave us empty and exhausted. May the shalom of God through Christ be with your spirit.
The Hebrew word, Shalom, in scripture, also refers to the peace and tranquility that the righteous soul experiences in death. One of the earliest uses of the word shalom, is in God’s promise to Abraham in the first book of the bible, when he promises that due to Abraham’s faithfulness in life, he will rest in the peace of his forefathers in death. Thousands of years later, we still offer that prayer when someone dies, “may he rest in peace.”
So too in our Christian belief about death and judgment. Those of Jesus’ disciples who die in a state of peace with God, a state of grace—will be raised on the last day and enjoy the eternal peace of the heavenly kingdom.
We’ve looked at the latin word, we looked at the Hebrew word, but St. John’s Gospel, was not written in either latin or Hebrew, was it, but in Greek. And the Greek word, St. John uses to translate the Lord’s greeting of Shalom, is also quite revealing. The Greek word for peace in St. John’s Gospel, is the word “Eirene”—coming for the word “eiro” which means to be joined to something that makes you whole. So peace, Christian peace, lasting peace, comes ultimately from being joined to Christ. This is a peace that is available to us through the Sacramental life of the Church. We are joined to Him in baptism. Broken communion is restored through Reconciliation. We are strengthened in communion through the Eucharist. Husband and Wife become a sacrament of the Lord’s union with the Church through sacramental marriage.
Finally, notice, that the Lord’s announcement of peace only comes at the very end of John’s Gospel, after the Lord’s death and resurrection. Peace, wholeness, blessedness and well-being have come at a price. For notice, too, how immediately after announcing peace, he draws his attention to the wounds in his hands and side. The Lord draws attention to the marks of his suffering, crucifixion, and death, for as Isaiah writes, “he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; by his wounds we are healed, his punishment has brought us wholeness”
The Lord invites Thomas to place his hands within the wounds that have won peace and wholeness for him and the whole human race. When we contemplate his wounds with gratitude we obtain a sense of how deeply we are loved. And when we commit to imitate that suffering to work for peace, we become blessed with a peace that nothing else in the world can provide.
True Peace is never every achieved without suffering. Good Pope St. John XXIII wrote, “True peace is born of doing the will of God, and bearing with patience the sufferings of this life, and does not come from following one’s own whim or selfish desire, for this always brings, not peace and serenity, but disorder and discontent”.
Do you want peace in your family, peace in our world? You’ll never find it until you are at peace with God through Christ—seeking to order your life according to his teachings, living his commandments, receiving his grace through the sacraments, listening to his life-giving word in prayer.
Easter is the celebration of the New Peace that is available to the human race—a peace that comes through union with Christ. May we never take his victory for granted, but live the new life of peace today and all days, and allow ourselves to become his instruments of establishing his peace in the hearts and minds and souls of others for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.
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