Gift of Peace
Jn 14:27-31a
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 27“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. 28You 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. 29And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe. 30I will no longer speak much with you, for the ruler of the world is coming. He has no power over me, 31but the world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.”
My peace I give to you. A new kind of peace is what Jesus offers to his disciples. It is not the peace that the world commonly understands. Jesus rightfully claims it as his, for indeed only the Son of God and Redeemer can give it. This gift is the fruit of his resurrection. It is the kind of peace that comes from divine wellsprings, born out of perfect obedience to the will of the Father.
There is a fear factor that is essential in the human relationship with the divine Being. It is traditionally referred to as the fear of the Lord. The Church regards it as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. This gift is an overwhelming sense of wonder and awe before the divine presence usually coupled with an unwelcome awareness of one’s sinfulness.
Simon Peter had this feeling after the huge catch of fish, along with the brothers James and John. They had just returned from fishing all night and catching nothing. But at the word of Jesus, Peter put out into deep water and lowered their nets. They caught such a great number of fish that their nets were tearing. Witnessing this, Simon Peter fell on his knees and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man” (Lk 5:8).
“Let nothing disturb you, nothing frighten you.
All things are passing, God never changes.
Patient endurance attains all things.
Who possesses God is wanting in nothing.
God alone suffices” (St. Teresa of Jesus).
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