“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” Jesus spoke these words on the night before he was to suffer a most grueling, painful death on the cross. And yet, he is in peace and offers his peace to his followers. How is this possible?
It’s important to recognize that there are two kinds of peace: worldly peace and heavenly peace. Worldly peace is temporary and varies from person to person. To a lazy person, peace means freedom from work and time to loaf. To an industrious person, peace gives the opportunity to work without interference or interruption. “It was a peaceful vacation,” we say when we’ve been able to get away from appointments, telephone calls and all those emails. A worldly peace is that kind of peace where the troubles and pressures of life are temporarily blotted out, as cooling clouds blot out the scorching sun. This peace is only brief and incomplete. Once the outward circumstances change, the tensions, anxieties and pressures return as quickly as they left.
But Jesus was – and is – offering heavenly peace. This is a peace that is real and permanent even when the circumstances may seem to dictate otherwise. I once visited a man in the hospital who was about to undergo a very serious operation and the outcome was uncertain. And yet, he was very calm and at peace. I asked him why he was feeling so much at peace. He answered with a deep calm: “I have placed my life in the Lord’s hands. I have nothing to fear because I know that he is with me. One day, according to God’s plan, I will be with him.” That is heavenly peace. That is the peace that Jesus felt the night before his crucifixion and the peace that he offered his disciples – and offers us today.
Have you ever walked along a beach and noticed a small seashell that has obviously been tossed about by the ocean but is still intact? How is it possible? It’s because the shell did not fight the forces of the water swirling around it. It didn’t seek to forge its own path but yielded itself to the water’s force. In the same way, Jesus always did the will of his heavenly Father and so he could be at peace even as he faced that cruel death. That’s heavenly peace. It comes when we live according to God’s plan.
So many people look for peace in every place except the one place where it can be found. They seek it through worldly pleasures, a psychiatrist’s couch, medication, or addictions. But, we will never achieve peace within ourselves until we place our lives in God’s hands and live according to his will. God’s peace comes to us as his gift when we seek to live in harmony with him.
We see an instance when the early Christians experienced that peace during a key moment of the nascent Church that we hear presented in today’s first reading. The Jews who had come to recognize Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah were upset. They could not be at peace with uncircumcised people in their midst. After all, that was the sign of God’s covenant and they had come to understand that this was a requirement from God. But, through obedience to the promptings of God’s Spirit, they came to realize that Jesus had offered us a new and everlasting covenant and, submitting to God’s will, they could be at peace with this momentous transition in their Jewish culture.
In today’s second reading from the Book of Revelation, we get a glimpse of the heavenly peace. In a time before electricity, when the only strong sources of light were the sun and a full moon, notice what the person who is brought to the heavenly Jerusalem is concerned with: light. He notes that this heavenly city had no need of the sun or the moon because the glory of God gave it light and its lamp was the Lamb. He began to experience heavenly peace assured of these brilliant sources of light. As we continue to celebrate this glorious Easter season and prepare to celebrate our Lord’s Ascension into heaven this Thursday, the readings today are reassuring. We are all assured that we can experience peace – and not just an earthly peace but heavenly peace, even now and in its fullness in the presence of God. All we need to do is follow Jesus’ example and submit ourselves to the will of our heavenly Father. That will allow us to live in peace even in the turmoil of our daily lives as we anticipate the eternal peace we will enjoy in heaven. How blessed we are.