Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 4, 2021

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.”  These words of the Lord Jesus are found in the Mass, after the Lord’s Prayer and before Holy Communion.  They are part of what is known as the Kiss of Peace, a rite within the Mass that is very ancient, although it’s place is not.  Originally, in the West, the Kiss was set before the Canon (what we today call the Eucharistic Prayer).  Thus, it came after the Gospel and after the dismissal of the catechumens and non-believers.  The Kiss, then, fulfilled two functions: it served as a greeting between members of the faithful, and it insured that only members of the faithful were present for the most important part of the Mass.  The Kiss seems to have been moved to its current location around the year 400.  After that time it ceased to be exchanged between the members of the faithful and was exchanged only by members of the clergy at solemn Masses, and not at all at low Masses, which were more customary.  This seems to have occurred because the purposes of the Kiss ceased with the spread of private Masses.  The custom of exchanging a greeting of peace was revived in the reform of the Mass in the 1960’s, now forming part of the preparation for Holy Communion, due to its location in the Mass.  As a religious rite, it is supposed to be conducted soberly, keeping in mind that at that point those in the church are in the presence of the Most High God on the altar, where attention properly belongs.

Now, on the occasion of the Lord speaking these words to his Apostles, we should be aware that the words are causative and not simply a wish for someone’s peace.  When the Lord Jesus cried out to Lazarus in his tomb, “Lazarus, come forth!”, the dead man’s soul was reunited with his healed body and he did come forth.  The Lord’s word is powerful: “For the word of God is living and effectual and more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4, 12).  The Lord’s “peace”, then, went into the Apostles so that their thoughts were quieted and their emotions calmed.  The Lord did this not simply out of his love for them, but in order that they might listen more carefully to what he had to tell them.  And indeed, he did have much more to say to them, as he was about to speak to them about himself as the Vine and them as the branches, the Gospel reading for this past Sunday’s Mass.

“Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  The peace that the Lord offers to those who believe in him is not a mere cessation of violence, whether physical or emotional, exterior or interior.  That is the best the world can give, and it is very short-lived.  The peace that Christ offers is that of a clean conscience and of a heart settled in his own heart.  The clean conscience comes from the laws which Christ gives to us which allow us to know his will and even to carry them out.  As long as we do ask for his grace and do our best, we can rest in the assurance that God is pleased with us.  We may experience this most profoundly through the Sacrament of Penance.  And our hearts rest in his when we commit ourselves to living for Christ alone, rejecting ambition, lust, envy, anger, and all the other worldly things which do nothing for us but stir us up.

The holy person brings God’s peace.  The Lord said, “Into whatever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house” (Luke 10, 5).  The Lord continued, “And if a peaceful person be there, your peace shall rest upon him: but if not, it shall return to you.”  That is, the effect of the holy person’s peace is not dependent upon him, but upon the recipient: the recipient must be a peaceful person, that is, one disposed to live peaceably.  Similarly, if we wish for the Lord’s peace to be effectual in us, we must be disposed to live peaceably and according to the Lord’s will.  Resting in the Lord’s embrace, the darkening of the sun, the falling of the stars, the shaking of the earth, the fighting of wars, and the end of the world itself — all of which the Lord foretells — will not disturb us.