Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 17, 2022

John 14, 27-31a

Jesus said to his disciples: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  The world does not offer true peace, but temporary escapes from what it demands of us.  Often, these escapes take forms that leave us less well-off than before we indulged in them.  They may even endanger us.  The peace that the Lord gives can only be had from him.  It is not an escape from dire circumstances but a state in which we see that the circumstances are not dire.  St. Paul, lately released from prison, speaks of this: “Have no anxiety about anything, but in all things let your requests be made known to God by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4, 6-7).  True peace, then, does not mean merely the absence of anxiety and animosity, but a supernatural reality that lifts the heart and mind to things beyond this world.  It allows us to judge this world rightly and to see it not as in end in itself and not as a means to pleasure but as a training ground for heaven.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  The context for this Gospel reading is the Last Supper, and the Lord Jesus is preparing his Apostles for his Passion and Death.  They are in need of his consolation and encouragement because they had followed him while holding dear the idea that the Messiah would reign forever, but here the Lord is quite clear about his coming Death.  With their suppositions shaken, they are shaken.  Nor do they want their Lord, whom they love, to die.  “You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.”  The Lord refers back to something he has just said, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (John 14, 2).  He is telling his Apostles that they should rejoice because his going to the Father in heaven means that he will prepare places for them there, and then he will come back and take them with him.  He does not prepare places for them in an earthly kingdom, as they had expected, but a heavenly one, for as he will say to Pilate: “My Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18, 36).  But they can only rejoice if their hearts are filled with his peace.  

“The Father is greater than I.”  Some in ancient times (and again in modern times) have read this phrase to mean that Jesus acknowledged that he was lesser than the Father — that is, not divine.  The Son means two things here.  First, that inasmuch as the Father has begotten him (from all eternity), the Father is greater than he is, and yet the Father and the Son are equal in glory, power, and majesty.  Second, the Father is greater than the human nature which the Son has assumed.  The primary meaning for the Apostles is the first.  It is as if the Lord were saying, “If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for he is indeed my beloved Father.”  

“And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”  The Lord Jesus foretold his Passion, Death, and Resurrection in some detail to his Apostles on at least three occasions.  He reminds them now why he has foretold this to them: so that they may believe that he is the Son of God, and that they should not despair over the events shortly to come.

“I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”  The “ruler of the world” can be understand both of death, personified, and as the devil.  Death can be said to rule the world in that so many people fear it and live their lives so as to avoid it for as long as possible, using whatever means available.  The devil can be said to rule the world because he has mastered so many of its inhabitants with sin.  Jesus does not speak in fear, as most people would, but calmly, for with his Death he will destroy death.  It is why he came, of his own will, to earth.  While he gives himself up to death, the devil has no power over him as he has over the people of the world since the original sin.  The Lord destroys this power over us too through his Death, into which we are baptized.  “But the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”  That is to say, the Lord Jesus gives himself up even to death in order to show his devotion to the Father’s will.  In this way we see the Father’s immense love for us: “For God so loved the world, as to give his only begotten Son: that whosoever believes in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting” (John 3, 16).   

We pray for the gift of the Lord’s peace, and to be open to it.  So many of us seem not to be happy unless we are miserable or making other people miserable.  We think we do not deserve peace, and that is so.  But the Lord Jesus wants us to have peace so that we may do his will and love him with all our hearts.