2nd Sunday of Easter 2021 - "Peace be with you"

 

“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. 

March 17 2021 - St. Patrick - Let us be Christians like those of Rome (Ut Christiani Ita Et Romani Estis)

 A few years ago, I was able to travel to Scotland with a priest friend. We visited a number of Scotland’s holy sites: like the tomb of St. Margaret of Scotland, the 15th century Rosslyn chapel, and St. Andrew’s Golf Course…and a couple whiskey distilleries…

One memorable site was the Church of St. Patrick in the old part of Edinburgh. Across the façade of the Church, was a latin saying from St. Patrick himself, that I had never heard of before: Ut Christiani Ita et Romani Estis. Let us be Christians like those of Rome. 

This saying was written in latin, Patrick’s native language: for remember Patrick was not a native Irishman, but the son of a roman Briton, born in what is the modern day village of Norton in the English county of Northamptonshire. And he didn’t speak even an early form of English, for he lived in Brittania prior to the Anglo-Saxons bringing their language to the British Isles. So he spoke the language of Rome. And not only the language, but Patrick is saying here, Ut Christiani Ita et Romani Estis, let us practice the form of Christianity as practiced in Rome. The Creed of the Roman Catholics, the liturgy of the Roman Catholics, the deference to the Roman Pope, and the courage of the Roman Catholics—the courage of the Roman martyrs.

When Patrick, as a missionary bishop, brings Christianity to pagan Ireland, with the polytheistic celtic pagan religion, he was bringing Roman Catholicism being practiced in Rome to the Emerald Isle. And I make this point today, because there is a modern tendency, as there has been in many points in history, to reshape Christianity to fit our modern ideals, to make Christianity conform more with, let’s say, the modern American secular culture. But that’s not the Christianity of Patrick, that’s not the Christianity we have inherited from our ancestors, that’s not the Christianity that was practiced when this parish was founded. 

In the Gospel today, we hear our Lord speaking about His obedience to the Father: “I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” Even the Lord, the second person of the Trinity made flesh, bows his human will to the will of his heavenly Father. Being a Christian always means bowing the will to something bigger than us. And St. Patrick and all the saints are always wonderful models of that surrender and obedience and celebration of that higher will, not something reshaped in our own image, but something that seeks to shape us in His.

May our Lenten observances help to humble our earthly pride, and help us to be Christians like those of Eternal Rome, on the Rock of Peter, that we, like the great missionary bishop St. Patrick, may bring the true faith into every corner of the world, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

 

For Holy Father Pope Francis and all the bishops, that they may preach with conviction the fullness of the Roman Catholic faith. 

For an increase in faith for the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity.

That the Church might be delivered and protected from all spirits of error, heresy, schism, and unbelief.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

That those in need may find assistance in the charity of faithful Christians and that peace and security may be firmly established in all places.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.