WORD 2day: Tuesday, 5th week in Easter time
May 20, 2025: Acts 14: 19-28; John 14: 27-31a
There is a game that younger generation plays - truth or dare! You say the truth or accept the dare - that is the rule of the game. Peace that Christ seems is something like that! Let us reflect.
Peace is the first gift of the Risen Lord: peace be with you was the salutation always! That is how our new Holy Father began his Papacy too. What kind of a peace are we speaking of here? Peace would mean lack of conflicts and an absence of turbulence, in ordinary terms. But for Jesus it is different. That is why he seems very particular in explaining to the apostles that the peace that he gives us, is not the same as the peace that the world thinks. In simple terms, Christ-ian peace, is quite different from the peace that the world powers and organisations speak of, though they do nothing even about ìt. Anyway, we are not to sit on judgement on others!
Peace, according to the mind of Christ, is not lack of conflicts but it is a victory over all conflicts, it is overcoming all the inner, interpersonal, societal and universal conflicts! It is not merely an absence of turbulence but a transcending of all turbulence, a rising above all disturbance and a resolution of all crises, not an absence of them. We see this clearly in the lives of Paul, Barnabas and other apostles who seem to perfectly understand the peace of the Lord. One trouble over, they were up for the next.
In our times too, it is easier to give into the utopian longing for peace. Peace is in no way staying clear of crises, but it is staying calm in the midst of a crisis. At times we take the easiest way out of things... find alternative meanings and convenient descriptions to justify our comfort zones and complacent lives. Peace comes from facing the truth; if we are not ready to face the truth, of course we have to face the dare, as the game we referred to.
Some times in families and among friends, we stay conveniently out of the lives of people and define our own boundaries, without really getting into true and difficult relationships. Peace is not staying away from misunderstandings or mishaps, but living through them with the daring Spirit of Christ, to encounter persons, to live our lives to the full, in spite of the troubles that are foreseen! Can we?
For the apostles and the first Christians, peace was in the Lord and nothing could stop them from making it their own. Amidst all the turbulence, disturbance and crises they enjoyed a peace and serenity that no one even comprehended. That is why today, more than being a blessing, the peace of Christ is a dare! Do we dare to share that peace, the peace of the Lord?