Peace Rooted in Love

Gospel reflection for John 14:27-31a

Photo by Magdalena Smolnicka via Unsplash

Today’s readings can be found on the USCCB website.

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I recall my preschool days - after the daily activities ended, everyone would head outside to burn off energy to close the day; we would wait for our caregivers to pick us up by playing on the structures or seeing how high we could swing. Every vehicle that slowed and parked at the street was greeted by eager eyes, watching through or over the bushes to see if it was our vehicle. The times I recollect seeing my mother coming to the gate, I remember being filled with joy, pumping my little legs, racing to see her. I loved her and after being away from her the whole day, my excitement to see her fueled my speed. There was a deep sense rightness that came from being collected into her arms for an embrace - the peace that comes from being loved. While I loved being at preschool, learning and playing, there was something about being with my mother that was restorative in a way that preschool just was not.

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.

As wonderful as the peace I received in reconnecting with my mother after preschool, the peace that Jesus gives to us is even more than that. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. Jesus means the fullness of that word: the gift of peace that comes with messianic salvation. While it is beyond the grasp of the disciples to understand the fullness of his mission as messiah, Jesus invites them into that peace nonetheless.

Jesus, too, is returning to his Father. We can sense the aspect of his longing for that reunion when he says,

If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.

All that’s recorded about the years of Jesus’ public ministry tells us that he did everything according to his Father’s desire, or the Father’s will as we might say. His return to the Father is a reunion of love; their love is so dynamic and so abundant, it will overflow again into humanity: “I am going away and I will come back to you.” The Advocate makes the peace that Jesus gives and his coming back a permanent reality in his disciples, poured into them at Pentecost as they become a new creation - recreated into the body of Christ. The holy Spirit is poured into us at baptism and renewed at confirmation; we also receive this permanent reality, the gift of salvation.

The holy Spirit enables us to respond to the Father the way Jesus responds to him, and Jesus says, “I do just as the Father has commanded me.” Whatever rebellious tendency our human nature makes manifest is salved by the exuberant gift of peace we can now receive in following the Father’s will.

The peace and joy we experience in everyday situations can help us connect to how we are meant to experience following the Father’s will. The embrace of the Father of Jesus Christ engulfs the circumstances we experience. As a young child I raced to just be with my mother. It was within her embrace that I found things were right with the world again, with scraped knees or pretty flowers. How much more does the Father rejoice when we can just be with him, the source of all that restores us to life?

Let us pray that today we can race to be with the Father in our spirit, whether in calm silence or chaotic busy-ness. May we experience the joy and peace that comes from being immersed in the presence of the One who loves us lavishly and is always with us.