“A peace that the world cannot give.”
We hear Jesus saying so often in the gospels, “Trust in me”, “Do not let your hearts be troubled”, “Doubt no more” and so on. He is calling us to have complete faith in him. We find that difficult because we are inherently sceptical or doubtful to a greater or lesser degree, but if there is somebody in this world that we trust it should be God!
As a child we implicitly trust our parents to do what is right for us. They protect us and comfort us and prepare us for the big world that is out there. It is only when we grow up that we reject that trust or belief that we outgrow it. However we never grow too old to accept the love and trust that our parents would gladly bestow on us.
It is like that with God. However good our parents, they are not a patch on the love and care that God gives to us, yet we so frequently reject that love in our journey through life. Yet God remains steadfast in his love for us.
It is only when we return to God that we appreciate what he is offering us and it will not be until our own Judgement Day that we will truly know the love and mercy of God.
But when we are in that position of trusting God we can encounter the peace that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel. It is not an absence of noise, absence of war or division or indeed absence of strife, but it is so much more than that. It is the taking us far from the perspective we have of life in the humdrum of the everyday world, away from the concentration on so much that does not matter, taking us away from the situations of strife caused by the interweaving of dilemmas associated with the different layers of sin.
It is taking us on a different spiritual plane, one where we can be truly at peace because of the instinctive love and trust that we have for our God who is always there for us if only we put ourselves in that position.
Let’s see how close we can get to that. For it to happen we must have a good prayer life. A snatched prayer is not sufficient. We need quality 1:1 time with the Lord if we are ever going to hear what he has to say to us and if we are to communicate all of our feelings with him.
Let us trust in him through our prayer … then let’s see where he takes us!
Gospel John 14:27-31 ©
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you,
a peace the world cannot give,
this is my gift to you.
Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.
You heard me say: I am going away, and shall return.
If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I.
I have told you this now before it happens,
so that when it does happen you may believe.
I shall not talk with you any longer,
because the prince of this world is on his way.
He has no power over me,
but the world must be brought to know
that I love the Father
and that I am doing exactly what the Father told me.’