Being people of peace - a sign of hope!

WORD 2day: Thursday, 26th week in Ordinary time

October 3, 2024 - Job 19:21-27; Luke 10: 1-12

I am sure I shall see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living, we say in the responsorial today! This is the hope that marks the people of God. This is what Job feels when he says, this I know: my Avenger or my Redeemer lives... in all his pain and sorrow, he never loses sight of his Redeemer and hopes that he shall take his side, in the right time!

This sense of hope, is a sign of being the people of God. Jesus teaches us that it is from this hope that true peace shall be born, a peace that is to be seen not merely in times of wellbeing but primarily in times of adversities. When sufferings and hardships strike us, what is our attitude? Where do our eyes rest? On the Redeemer who lives or on the enemy who strikes? Being people of peace, means those who are convinced of their call to be people of God, people belonging to the Lord.

Jesus teaches this to the apostles: On the persons of peace, peace shall rest! It is not the other way around - that peace rests on us and we become persons of peace, no. Only if we are persons of peace, peace shall rest upon us. This is the sign of hope that comes from the faith in the presence of my Redeemer with me. When I can say amidst all the struggle that I am through, "I shall see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living," then I am a person of peace; I seek peace, I wish peace, and I behold the peace that my Saviour gives. Then it is that peace shall dawn on me. 

There are those who think, speak and act against peace! Can peace stay upon them or around them? We are challenged to grow in this identity: to be persons of peace, that is the sign of hope we can offer the world of today.