Gospel Commentary: The Peace of Paradise

By Fr. John De Celles
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 5/13/04)

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells His apostles, "I leave you peace, my peace I give you." But the question is, what is this "peace" that Jesus is leaving His apostles? Is it the tranquility of a quiet place to pray? Or an end to violence in the world, or peace among Christians? Or was He simply extending to them a common social greeting: "peace"?

To answer this question let’s think about the one place in Scripture where there’s absolute peace: at the beginning of the world in the Garden of Eden — paradise. Here we find man living as God intended — sharing His life of perfect love.

That is true peace. That is the peace lost when Adam and Eve did not keep God’s word, but it is also the peace restored by Christ, the "new Adam," (cf. 1 Cor 15:45) who "make[s] all things new" (Rv 21:5), who comes to restore us to the one perfect and eternal life of love with God.

So on the night before He died, before He gave them the great sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus told His Apostles: "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him."

And He went on to say: "I do not give you [peace] as the world gives peace." The peace of Christ isn’t the tranquility of a quiet place, or an end to violence — these pass away as quickly as they come. No, Christ’s peace is found in entering into the perfect life and love that exists between the Father, Son and Spirit, being one with them by being true to God’s word.

Heaven is the perfection of this peace, but we can share in it even in this life. This is the peace of Christ dwelling inside of us, by the will of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit. The peace of our all-loving and all-powerful Savior being with us to strengthen us, calm us and guide us, in the middle of every hardship, every doubt, every temptation.

This may seem impossible — but for God nothing is impossible. And nowhere does He give us this grace, this gift of peace, more completely than in the way He gave it to the apostles at the last supper: in the Eucharist. This is why at every Mass the reception of Communion is preceded by the "Rite of Peace," in which the priest quotes this Gospel passage from Holy Thursday: "I leave you peace, my peace I give you." We remember that through the Eucharist we are about to enter into holy Communion with the New Adam and, through Him, with the Trinity.

Sadly, we often trivialize this part of the Mass by misunderstanding that part of this rite known as "the sign of peace." Like so many times when we speak of peace, "the sign of peace" too often becomes an occasion for being distracted toward thoughts of the ways "the world gives peace" — the transitory peace that passes as quickly as the next sin is committed. And we wind up closing our hearts, even if ever so slightly, to the perfect peace which Jesus longs to give us in the Eucharist.

As we meditate on these beautiful words of Jesus, "my peace I give you," let’s not be distracted by transitory or passing ideas of peace. Rather, let us open our hearts to the perfect peace we were created for and which He restores us to in the Eucharist: the peace of living and loving in communion with Jesus and His Father and Spirit. The perfect peace of paradise.

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