Tuesday in the Fifth Week of Easter, May 20, 2025

John 14, 27-31

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.

Today’s Gospel Reading is taken from the Lord’s sermon to his Apostles during the Last Supper.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  Jesus declares with these words that he possesses peace, for he can bestow it on whomever he wills.  The idea of “giving peace” was not entirely foreign to humanity at the time, for one person could console another, easing the burden of their sorrow and giving them a certain peace.  But this “peace” must be defined as a lack of turmoil, a lack of harsh emotion, rather than a positive good.  And this is what the peace of Jesus is — a positive good.  It does not merely take a bad thing from someone, it gives them a good thing.  It is life-giving and nourishing.  That is why Jesus adds, by way of clarification: “Not as the world gives do I give it to you.”  His peace is a supernatural gift affecting one’s very soul.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  Literally, according to the Greek: “or shrunken”, as though the life were squeezed out of them.  Jesus here refers to the time from his Death until his Resurrection and appearance to them.  It also refers to the time after his Ascension when they will see him no more on earth.

“If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father.”  Jesus has been preparing the Apostles for his Death and he teaches them not to look at death as a catastrophic end but as a means of going to the Father.  Those whose faith is great rejoice when the faithful die for they are attaining their heart’s most fervent desire, eternal bliss in heaven, even while mourning the temporary separation.  “For the Father is greater than I.”  The Father and Son are equal in power and majesty but the Father is the origin of the Son from all eternity and in that sense he is “greater” than the Son.  Jesus is impressing upon them how much he longs to be with his Father and how joyous he was with him before he “emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men, and in habit found as a man” (Philippians 2, 7).  

“I have told you this before it happens.” This is to reassure them that when he ascends into heaven he will return to the Father.  They will remember his words and their faith will be strengthened, preparing them to receive the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

“I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming.”  That is, the devil, who will attack him in a few hours through evil men.  He is called “the ruler of the world” because the people of the world have chosen to serve him by pursuing worldly goods rather than serving God.

“He has no power over me.”  Nor does the devil have power over the faithful — unless they give it to him.  “But the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”  The world learns how much the Son loves the Father through his obedience to him “unto death, even to the death of the cross” (Philippians 2, 8).

Let us pray for the peace which Christ alone can give us and which will be ours in our obedience to God’s holy will.