John 14:27-31

You have all heard of Helen Keller who could neither see nor hear. Totally blind and totally deaf she nevertheless became highly educated. One evening after a lecture she invited questions. Someone asked: “Miss Keller, if you could have but one wish granted, what would it be?” What a question! Here was a woman who had never heard the voices or looked on the faces of those she loved. Her only contact with the world was by the sense of touch. Surely her wish would be for sight or hearing. Instead, she answered: “I would wish for world peace.”

In the gospel today Jesus prayed for peace in his farewell discourse to his followers as he said: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you.” What kind of peace does Jesus offer? The peace of Christ is more than the absence of trouble. He does not mean a mere absence of war or noise. Rather, peace, ‘shalom,’ the Jewish word for it, meant freedom from trouble. It meant health, it meant a secure and contented life, it meant all the spiritual and material gifts God would bestow in his people. It includes everything which makes for our highest good. The world’s approach to peace is avoidance of trouble and a refusal to face unpleasant things. Jesus offers the peace which conquers our fears and anxieties.

The priest says those same words as he carries Christ to the home of a sick or aged Christian, and as he begins the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. Peace includes everything Jesus stands for. It includes healing of body and soul. It includes the wisdom of his Word, the comfort of his presence.

Notice how often we pray for peace in the Sacrifice of the Mass. Sin is the biggest enemy of peace. The death of Jesus renewed on this altar takes away sin, helps to avoid sin. In the Eucharistic prayer the priest says: “Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and grant us the peace and unity of your Kingdom.” Shortly thereafter the priest says, “Lord Jesus you said to your apostles, “My peace I leave you, my peace I give you.” Then he says, “The peace of the Lord be with you always.” And we are invited to show some sign of peace between one another. Up to the priest’s final farewell he says: “Go in peace.”

Yes, the Mass is a celebration of peace, a sign of peace, a source of peace, a treaty of peace. May every house and heart in the world hear the greeting of Christ: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”