Peacemakers!

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Acts 14:19-28; Jn 14:27-31

Today’s Gospel invites us to reflect on Jesus’ promise of peace. 

It is often easy to give a spiritual spin to Jesus’ statement on peace. 

However, if we look closely, Jesus says, ‘‘My’ peace I give to you.’

Now, what is his peace? Is it the same as what we find in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew?  

In Lk 12:51, Jesus says, ‘Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.’ 

Again, in Mt 10:34, Jesus says, ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.’ 

How are these statements of Jesus related to his statement on peace in today’s Gospel? 

Also, we read in Col 1:19-20 that Jesus made ‘peace through the blood of his cross.’ How do we understand that? 

Not only this! Following the radical activism of Jesus, saints too understood peace differently. 

For instance, St. Oscar Romero’s understanding of peace is uniquely different. 

He asked, ‘A Church that doesn’t provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn’t unsettle, a word of God that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin, a word of God that doesn’t touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed – what Gospel is that?’

We understand that Jesus leaves peace with us. But what is the nature of ‘his peace?’

Looking into the life of Jesus, we understand that Jesus talks of peace through an uncompromising allegiance to him. Our staunch faith in him will put us in direct conflict with the world. The outcome of such a conflict will be the peace that we may be blessed with.

Jesus made peace with his life. St. Oscar Romero paid for peace with his life. 

Befriending the Lord but antagonizing the world is peace. 

Not counting the loss, the result of a good fight for justice is peace.

Jesus invites us to be peacemakers of this sort because, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called Children of God’ (Mt 5:9).

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar