PEACE - THE GOOD NEWS

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - 2nd July, 2016

Is 66: 10-14; Gal 6: 14-18; Lk 10: 1-12, 17-20

Happy Feast of St. Thomas. We would not dwell on that wonderful theme of faith that St.. Thomas stands for. But the Word speaks to us of another theme that is very closely connected to St. Thomas, or for that matter to all the apostles. The theme is Good News... the Good News that Jesus sent his apostles to proclaim.

What could be Good News today to the world? These are days of unrest. Unrest at all levels - Global, National, Local - at all levels there is a sense of acute unrest, a feeling of insecurity and anxiety.

At the global level news like the Brexit - the United Kingdom opting to get out of the European Union -one of the most promising gestures of solidarity in the last millennium - is a sign of unrest, a sign of  dissatisfaction, a sign of loss of hope in humanistic solidarity!

At the National level, the various uprisings, the suicide of Rohit, the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar, are just the tip of the iceberg of unrests that are aggressively active underground.

At the local level, the recent killing of a helpless girl in the broad day light in a place as public as a railway station, the suicide of the girl whose morphed images went viral on facebook, these are another set of events laying bare the unrest that rules the minds of persons in today's society.

Just to add to these instances one opinion that is being considered as newly practical these days: there are people who seem to say, 'it is alright to be selfish'! What a stage we have reached where people not only justify selfishness but propagate it as if it is a virtue, a virtue of the pragmatic school!

What would be the good news for a time that is marked by such unrests: the good news is PEACE. "Peace" is the term that is common to all the parts of the liturgy of the Word today. The Lord promises a peace of comfort to God's people; the psalmist hopes for the peace of the Lord; St. Paul wishes and blesses the people of God with peace; and finally Jesus highlights good news as a sharing of peace!

What kind of a peace is the Word speaking about?

A peace that promises... Comfort but not Compromise

                Though the Lord time and again promised the people of God peace in their borders and the justice in their homes, the Lord does not compromise on anything. The comfort that the Lord promises does not consist of any compromise. What matters to the Lord, matters truly and matters always. When we are clear of what the Lord expects of us, and when we make a conscious choice for it, we are filled with a peace that comforts us, even amidst difficulties and pressures.

A peace that is born out of... Convictions and not Convenience

                The Lord as he sends his messengers ahead of him puts them through a rigorous drill, to learn to put up with inconveniences for the sake of the convictions they would live by. The conviction of a provident God, the conviction of the ever loving God, the conviction of the ever present God... leads to a peace of mind that defeats all consumer crazy claims of the day. Like St. Paul, we would be able to say, I have learnt to live in want and in plenty (cf. Phil 4:12)

A peace that is experienced through... Commitment and never Compulsion

Peace is the good news that the Lord offers, but the bad news is that it is upto me to accept it or not. It is not all that too easy to accept that offer because it involves quite a bit of discipline and sacrifice! But the choice is always mine. Behold I place before you life and death: remember those words that the Lord said in Deuteronomy? It is the Son of that God who speaks to us today and he will never be less demanding.

In summary, the good news that the Lord wants to offer us today is peace...a peace that flows from personal integrity and interpersonal solidarity.