John 14, 23-29:
Sunday, 22nd May 2022 (6 Easter C)
In this Sunday’s Gospel we continue to hear Jesus’ words to his disciples at the Last Supper. It is his last will and testament: “If anyone loves me, they will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them”. He promises to be with his own to the end. He will not leave them orphans, He will send them his own Spirit. It is the Spirit of Jesus who will guide them and teach them to live the Word of the Father. That Spirit also lives within each one of us, and if we allow ourselves to be guided by him, we will be fulfilling Jesus’ command. He “will teach us all things and bring to our remembrance all that I have said to you”.
As Jesus said goodbye to the disciples he said to them: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give it to you as the world gives it”. This peace of Jesus is not the absence of conflict, or peace achieved by force, or a dormant peace. It is the peace that comes from justice, from solidarity, from love. It is the peace that gives us the Spirit of Jesus and makes us treat others as equals. It is the peace that is born of dialogue in the face of our neighbour’s different opinion.
He will make his dwelling in us; he will give us his own Spirit; he gives us a peace that is different from that of the world… He is God with us. Being aware of this reality should make us see our life, our world, with new eyes: the eyes with which God looks at us and wants us to look at others.
Juan Ramón Gómez Pascual, cmf
Which peace do you have?
