Easter - Week 06c
Sixth Sunday of Easter - My Peace I give you
(From Conversation with God, Fernandez Carvajal)The Gospel of today's Mass relates one of the promises our Lord made to his apostles at the Last Supper, a promise which became a reality after the Resurrection: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.? Later on, at the same Supper, he repeated: "I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.? After the resurrection, our Lord stands in the midst of the apostles and says to them: "Peace be with you.? Our Lord would have spoken those words with that warm voice of his which the apostles knew so well. His friendly greeting dispelled the fear and the shame the apostles felt after the cowardly way they had behaved during his passion. Our Lord's greeting and his warm expression recreates that personal atmosphere in which he communicates his peace to them.
To wish one another peace was the way Jews usually greeted one another. The Apostles continued this custom, as we see in their letters; and so did the early Christians, as can be seen in many inscriptions dating back to that period. The Church uses the same greeting in the liturgy on certain occasions; before holy Communion, for example, the priest wishes peace to the people, because peace is a prerequisite in order to share worthily in the holy sacrifice: the peace of the Lord be with you always.
Over the centuries Christians put more meaning into their words of greeting, making them more spiritual. Supernatural outlook permeated the lives of the people, and its positive influence can be seen in generation after generation; those greetings are an external sign of a society which had a Christian heart. In today's world, we seem to be losing that supernatural outlook in the greetings we use. But it could be very helpful to our interior life to try to give a Christian tone to our greetings of welcome and farewell; it would add to our sense of the presence of God in our lives.
If we develop the habit, for example, of greeting the Guardian Angel of the people we meet, it will be easier for us to raise our dealings with them to a higher level. It would be a consequence of the presence of God dwelling in our soul. Let us strive not to lose supernatural outlook in the ordinary things of each day: Peace be with you, our Lord said to them. In the words of St Gregory Nazianzen, we should be ashamed if we are not using that greeting of peace which our Lord left us when he was about to depart from this world. But whatever our normal greeting may be, it can always be an occasion to live our fraternity with others better, to pray for them and to bring them peace and joy, as our Lord did with his disciples. "For behold, when the voice of your greeting came to my ears, the babe in my womb leaped for joy.? This joy of Elizabeth reminds us of what a treasure a greeting is when it comes from a heart which is filled with God. How often the shadows of loneliness engulfing a soul can be blown away by the light and warmth of a smile, or of a pleasant word.