Sunday, June 11, 2006
Of Things Divine: Peace Be With You, Pentecost-B
Some years ago Prudential Insurance Company was building a new facility to house its operational headquarters. Company officials thought that it would be nice to plant a time capsule that would be opened fifty years in the future. Among the items sealed in the capsule were predictions by various civic leaders. Before they placed them in the capsule, the each leader read read his prediction to the crowd. One prediction surprised everyone.
“Fifty years from now … men and women will still struggle to find happiness – which will continue to lie within themselves.”
That happiness, of course, is the peace that Christ gave to his disciples almost 2,000 years ago on the first Easter.
Peace be with you, he said … As the Father sent me, so I send you.
The peace that Christ wished for his disciples as he breathed on them to plant the Holy Spirit in them is the same peace he desires for us. It is his own peace which allowed him to live his entire life in a contented manner all the time knowing that the crucifixion lay before him. This kind of peace only comes through the presence of the Holy Spirit which fills the hearts of the faithful with the gifts necessary to face any situation in life in a manner that always reveals the hope we have for the promises of God being fulfilled for us.
Sometimes we focus too much on ourselves and forget that the bigger picture in life doesn’t revolve around us but around God. The “terrible three’s” wasn’t applied to toddlers without reason. Teenagers and young adults, generally speaking, are the worst about this because they have come to think that they deserve whatever they want and believe that they shouldn’t have to wait for it. But young people are not alone in this attitude. We witness the discontentment that a lack of holy peace allows to generate in many ways: in the impatience people demonstrate for one another, in the grumbling we spout about our lot in life, the ill humor we have for people with whom we work or those who employ us, and the swearing that bubbles forth ever more freely in everyday conversation.
If we weren’t a people of faith and all we had to hope to obtain are the pleasurable things of this life that advertisers tell us we need to be happy, I would forgive self-centered navel-gazing. But we have SO much more to look forward to. Our hearts and minds have been opened up to the glories of eternal life. The Holy Spirit has been breathed into us by God Himself to enliven us with a desire for the promise of heaven and to help us make decisions that will carry us to that reign of glory. We have not been promised a smooth ride, and some of us have very bumpy rides on the journey we call life, but all of us have empowered to keep our eye on the goal, our site on the crown of victory, our hunger for the things of heaven.
When we experience one of those bumps, what good does it do to complain unless we have lost our confidence in God who said He would take care of us. What good does it do to allow someone else’s decision to make us grow angry and bitter? It only destroys the peace that Christ has imparted to us, and the absence of that very peace unlocks the door for Satan to play all kinds of tricks in an effort to squash our faith.
Where does our impatience, grumbling and swearing get us? Nowhere! They certainly don’t make life any easier for us. Our troubles don’t dissipate because we grumble or swear. And, we just might find that impatience too often does nothing more than lead us to anger and resentment.
We are sent as the Father has sent His Son: into the world to proclaim the Good News. How can we proclaim Good News if we aren’t contented by our faith when faced with life’s twists and turns? Jesus has wished peace for us, and, remember, it is not the same as the peace the world offers us. It has nothing to do with comfort or ease or agreeability. The peace that Christ gives is the confidence that we can get through any difficulty by faith in God. The Good News is that we shall rise again!
If you believe that you are prepared to accept the changes that invade our comfortable lives more often than we would like – not just in resignation, but joyfully because God is doing it again – you enjoy the great gift of the peace of Christ that is meant to accompany the Church through the ages.
The blessing of this liturgy is that God is fulfilling His promises to us right here and right now in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the gift of His Son’s body and blood for us and the redemption of the whole world. And, because of this, we can accept any challenge, we can do anything God asks of us with the same enthusiasm that possessed Peter and the other disciples on that first Pentecost.
Joyfully we will proclaim the Good News: Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
“Fifty years from now … men and women will still struggle to find happiness – which will continue to lie within themselves.”
That happiness, of course, is the peace that Christ gave to his disciples almost 2,000 years ago on the first Easter.
Peace be with you, he said … As the Father sent me, so I send you.
The peace that Christ wished for his disciples as he breathed on them to plant the Holy Spirit in them is the same peace he desires for us. It is his own peace which allowed him to live his entire life in a contented manner all the time knowing that the crucifixion lay before him. This kind of peace only comes through the presence of the Holy Spirit which fills the hearts of the faithful with the gifts necessary to face any situation in life in a manner that always reveals the hope we have for the promises of God being fulfilled for us.
Sometimes we focus too much on ourselves and forget that the bigger picture in life doesn’t revolve around us but around God. The “terrible three’s” wasn’t applied to toddlers without reason. Teenagers and young adults, generally speaking, are the worst about this because they have come to think that they deserve whatever they want and believe that they shouldn’t have to wait for it. But young people are not alone in this attitude. We witness the discontentment that a lack of holy peace allows to generate in many ways: in the impatience people demonstrate for one another, in the grumbling we spout about our lot in life, the ill humor we have for people with whom we work or those who employ us, and the swearing that bubbles forth ever more freely in everyday conversation.
If we weren’t a people of faith and all we had to hope to obtain are the pleasurable things of this life that advertisers tell us we need to be happy, I would forgive self-centered navel-gazing. But we have SO much more to look forward to. Our hearts and minds have been opened up to the glories of eternal life. The Holy Spirit has been breathed into us by God Himself to enliven us with a desire for the promise of heaven and to help us make decisions that will carry us to that reign of glory. We have not been promised a smooth ride, and some of us have very bumpy rides on the journey we call life, but all of us have empowered to keep our eye on the goal, our site on the crown of victory, our hunger for the things of heaven.
When we experience one of those bumps, what good does it do to complain unless we have lost our confidence in God who said He would take care of us. What good does it do to allow someone else’s decision to make us grow angry and bitter? It only destroys the peace that Christ has imparted to us, and the absence of that very peace unlocks the door for Satan to play all kinds of tricks in an effort to squash our faith.
Where does our impatience, grumbling and swearing get us? Nowhere! They certainly don’t make life any easier for us. Our troubles don’t dissipate because we grumble or swear. And, we just might find that impatience too often does nothing more than lead us to anger and resentment.
We are sent as the Father has sent His Son: into the world to proclaim the Good News. How can we proclaim Good News if we aren’t contented by our faith when faced with life’s twists and turns? Jesus has wished peace for us, and, remember, it is not the same as the peace the world offers us. It has nothing to do with comfort or ease or agreeability. The peace that Christ gives is the confidence that we can get through any difficulty by faith in God. The Good News is that we shall rise again!
If you believe that you are prepared to accept the changes that invade our comfortable lives more often than we would like – not just in resignation, but joyfully because God is doing it again – you enjoy the great gift of the peace of Christ that is meant to accompany the Church through the ages.
The blessing of this liturgy is that God is fulfilling His promises to us right here and right now in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the gift of His Son’s body and blood for us and the redemption of the whole world. And, because of this, we can accept any challenge, we can do anything God asks of us with the same enthusiasm that possessed Peter and the other disciples on that first Pentecost.
Joyfully we will proclaim the Good News: Jesus Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!
