"What is Peace?"

Last weekend's gospel was a short piece from the Last Supper, when Jesus offered one final gift to his apostles, before he went to his death: the gift of peace.

The summer after my sophomore year in college (1969) was a great time for pondering, and since Vietnam was so prominent in the news and in my thoughts, as a young man eligible for armed service, I thought long and hard about peace. That search led me to reject war -- something I could not participate in and something that I felt no one should participate in.

The events of the years since then have deepened that conviction. Our pre-emptive war with Iraq is easy now to fault, but even the first time our president used the phrase "War against terrorism" the concept was bizarre. There are always alternatives to war, but too often they seem to take too long or cost too much. And true, the peace of Jesus was so very costly. But in reality, war perpetuates itself, and thus costs far more and takes far longer to resolve.

Sixth Sunday of Easter (C), May 2007

This morning once again we hear Jesus speak about the Holy Spirit, the Advocate; and once again we hear him speak about peace, in those words that are so familiar to us because we hear them during the Mass: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” The setting for this gospel is the Last Supper, and Jesus is giving his disciples a gift and a legacy, his gift of peace.

It’s a very precious gift, and I’m sure that every person, every race, every nation would like to have that gift. But the word is so often so badly misused, that I think we would do well today if we could just come to an understanding of what the word means, or at least what it doesn’t mean.

I think the peace many people daydream about is peace as the absence of conflict or stress. As in: “If I could just get out of this rat race I’d be OK,” or “If I made just ten thousand more a year, I’d be all right,” or “If it were not for this one relationship in my life, I’d be happy,” or “If my children would just mature and get settled, I think I could relax.” This is peace as the absence of problems.

I think there are some people try to purchase peace for their lives – as in buying drugs, or sedating themselves in some way; but I hope we can recognize that peace is not a silent stupor. Some people feel that buying things or having things will bring peace, or even that affluence is the way to peace; but so often it is true that having more tends to raise one’s stress level, not lower it. Sometimes people turn to religion to find peace, but that often can be a kind of quick-fix variety of faith, a “peace-of-mind religion,” with sermons and books to entice listeners and readers with promises of freedom from struggle. And it is true that if you can find a convincing way to market and sell inner peace, you can get rich.

I do believe that nearly everyone seeks peace of some kind, and many people probably assume that the peace Jesus promises is the peace they are looking for. This is probably what the disciples thought. But do we know what true peace is? Or what the peace is that Jesus gives us?

I had a little fun with this as I prepared for this homily, and called to mind various famous uses of the word peace.

•1. There is: Peace referred to when exhorting others patriotism and to battle:-- “Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?” Those words belonged to Patrick Henry that ended with the famous words, Give me liberty or give me death. And Patrick Henry made an important point: a peace without liberty, a peace without one’s God-given rights, is not really peace.

•2 There is: Peace referred to in shame: “Peace in our time.” Those words belonged to Neville Chamberlain, defending the Munich agreement, when Europe tried to appease Hitler and called it peace. History tells us peace is not built on the lies of good men, and certainly not on the lies of dictators. Peace must be built on the truth.

•3 There is also peace as a chant: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.” Boomers especially remember John Lennon’s song from the Vietnam War era, but even many of us who have sung along with the Beatles know that there is a lot more to peace than singing.

•4 Then there is the saying that I like best: “If you want Peace, work for Justice.” Pope Paul VI said that on the World Day of Peace in 1972. Paul said to the world that this is the right way to the genuine discovery of peace: “If we look for its true source, we find that Peace is rooted in a sincere feeling for others. A peace that is not the result of a true respect for others is not true peace. And what do we call this sincere feeling for others? We call it Justice.”

Paul goes on: “In Isaiah we find the words, ‘Justice will bring about Peace.’ We repeat Isaiah’s words today in a more incisive and dynamic formula: If you want Peace, work for Justice. This invitation does not ignore the difficulties of practicing Justice; perhaps more greatness of soul is needed for living out the ways of Justice and Peace than for fighting for and imposing on an adversary one’s rights, whether true or alleged.”

Ultimately, as we search for the meaning of peace, it may be simplest if we returned to the actual word that Jesus must have used, the Hebrew word “shalom.” Shalom means far more than the absence of conflict; it is a state of having everything right. It is positive well-being. It is harmony and wholeness, right relationships. It means being one with God, one with our neighbors, and one within oneself.

It is important to remember that Jesus had no peace in the conventional sense of the word. He was misunderstood, rejected, abused, humiliated, reviled, betrayed, and killed. So when he calls us to follow him, it is not to an easy way. Let’s face it; the peace people usually want, without reflecting on it, is peace without a cross. But the peace of Jesus is peace through a cross. The peace of Jesus is a deep, costly peace. Jesus shows us that struggle is a pre-requisite to knowing his peace. “Peace I give to you; but I do not give it as the world gives it.” The peace of Jesus was his peace with God, in spite of everything. This is true peace, and the kind of peace that the world can neither give nor take away.

We might ask ourselves what peace Jesus could possibly have known in those last hours of his life, weeping in the garden, watching his disciples run away, carrying an undeserved cross, feeling forsaken even by God? There is only one kind of peace possible in all of this. It was the peace that comes from doing the will of God.

What does it mean for us to follow Jesus? Do we think that we can just follow Jesus in total bliss right to a heavenly reward? What does it mean to follow Jesus if not following him in surrender to God’s will for us? Surrender sounds so… passive, so weak, almost negative. But there is a peace in surrendering to God’s will that is found in no other way; it is the peace that passes understanding.

The peace of Jesus ... not a peace without a cross, but a peace through the cross. Shalom.

Deacon Denny Duffell