Christ Bearer of Peace

In order to understand today’s readings, we need to understand Christ’s mission in light His own preaching.  In Luke 4, Jesus announces, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”  The year acceptable to the Lord in Jewish history is the great Jubilee, which was supposed to happen every 7 x 7 years, but never did.  In the Jubilee, slaves would be set free.  Those who had lost their ancestral homes would regain them.  The land would lie fallow and all God’s people would celebrate and give thanks for His goodness.

This is the context in which Luke writes his account of apostolic ministry.  Just as Jesus said he would proclaim liberty to captives and the oppressed, the Apostles bring liberty to those bound up by disease and demonic possession.  The Apostles are bringing about the peace and mercy promised in the Jubilee.  This is the day that the LORD has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it, for this mission is still ours today.  Everyone one of us is called by God to bring about this Jubilee in the world.

In the Gospel, Jesus says to the disciples gathered in the upper room “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  Jesus has given us a mission of evangelization.  By proclaiming the word of God, a message of reconciliation, we bring peace to the world.  By our Baptism and Confirmation, we share in the anointing of Jesus the Messiah.  Just as Jesus said “the Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18), so Jesus breathes the Spirit onto us so that we might announce God’s mercy to the world.  There used to be disharmony and conflict between God and men, but through Jesus, God has reconciled all things to Himself, making peace by the blood of His cross (Col 1:20).  We are sent by Jesus Himself to carry out this mission, applying the blood of the Cross to people in all nations.

And what is peace?  It is tempting to think of peace as the absence of war or conflict. But’s that’s lame.  A good can’t be the absence of an evil.  Evil is the absence of a good.  War is the absence of peace not the other way around.  Peace is right order and harmony.  We are at peace when everything in our life is being rightly ordered towards God.  When all that we say and do is directed towards knowing and loving God, then we is at peace.  It’s very much like being a well-oiled machine.  All the parts work together and none of them grind against the other.  Everything flows smoothly.  We are at peace with our neighbors when we are of one heart and mind.  We are at peace with our neighbors when we love them setting them free from the captivity of sickness and sin, blindness and error so that they might live in the fullness of life.  Peace comes when we live in the freedom of the children of God.

Peace comes when the Divine mercy is amongst us.  Three times in the Gospel today Jesus says, “Peace be with you.”  He bears peace into the world from His Father.  By receiving Christ’s peace by living under the influence of the Spirit, we not only find harmony within ourselves, but we bring peace to the world.  This peace finds its fulfillment in the Jubilee when all God’s people give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting.