Today’s Gospel includes one of my favorite Scripture verses:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (John 14:27).
Why We Live the Way We Do
God’s peace to us here on earth is one of his greatest gifts, as it reminds us why we live the way we do as his disciples and gives us the strength to do so. As St. Paul says elsewhere, it is the peace “which passes all understanding,” and “will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7).
More easily preached than lived, though, as I like to say, and yet our Lord Jesus Christ is with us in our daily and lifelong challenges. And we need to look for out each other as members of his Mystical Body, his Catholic Church, and to ask for help as well, realizing that none of us is called to journey alone, irrespective of whether we get married (see Gen. 2:18; 1 Cor. 12:12-26).
That is a key reason why Jesus tells us not to be worried or troubled. He loves us not simply through intimate sacramental encounters with Him, but also in His blessings, which are otherwise, including through our daily personal prayer and through each other in our loving solidarity as members of His one Church here on earth and the larger communion of saints.
Press On
In the light of God’s love and our Christian solidarity in him, we can, like St. Paul in today’s First Reading, press on. Today would not be the only time Paul suffered for the Faith, this time by stoning (Acts 14:19-20). There would be other trials as well (2 Cor. 11:25), including one that apparently endured for Paul’s whole life as a Christian (2 Cor. 12:8-10).
And so, we take encouragement from our brother, St. Paul, including through three or four verses I often group together in signing one of my books, or on another occasions I seek to encourage others in our Lord Jesus.
We can do all things through our Lord Jesus Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13). In the process of our trials we will be tested, and yet Jesus reminds us that his power will reach perfection in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:8-10). And so our Lord Jesus will always lead us to his incomparable peace, which the world cannot give (John 14:27), knowing that all things do work together for the good of his disciples (Rom. 8:28).
