A reading of the holy gospel according to John. This is a continuation of our lord's address, his last statement to the disciples at the last supper. And Christ says to his disciples, peace is my farewell to you. My peace is my gift to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives peace.
Do not be distressed or fearful. You have heard me say, I go away for a while and I come back to you. If you truly love me, you would rejoice to have me go to my father, for the father is greater than I. I tell you this now before it takes place so that when it does take place, you may believe. I shall not go on speaking to you any longer.
The prince of this world is at hand. He has no hold on me, but the world must know that I love the father and that I do as the father has commanded. And this is the gospel of the lord. If any of you are watching that clock, it's about five minutes slow, so be warned. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit.
Amen. Our blessed lord in this last statement to his disciples, is my farewell to you. And then he says quickly right next to that, my peace is my gift to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives peace. And we can say amen to that for sure.
Because the peace of Christ is not at all what we generally speak of as peace and which for the most part is the kind of peace we want. For the most part, we don't want the peace of Christ. I know we throw the word around a lot. Peace is on everybody's lips, but look at the world and see where there's peace. Look what's happening to our holy father on this trip of his.
And that's what we're getting through the daily press, USA, Washington Post, and Star. I think one of the most important concepts that a Christian, any follower of Jesus Christ, ought to get and of necessity needs is his concept of peace. And our lord is very careful to point out that it's not what the world offers at all. Now if you wanna see what the peace of Christ is, look at the kind of peace his followers enjoyed. Just we've been reading from the acts of apostles.
How in the early church, what happened to those first disciples that took off from Jerusalem, went north, and went westward. How from village after village, city after city, they would go. And what happened to them? In many instances, they were welcomed by some. In many instances, what they had to say was received gladly.
The message that they gave was perseveringly accepted in some instances. But for the most part, what happened to these bearers of the word? What happened to these messengers of the good news? They were booted out. In almost every instance, they were victims of persecution for for many reasons.
One of them that they were much they were disturbers of the peace, and you must never be a disturber of the peace. Notice what I said. Here are men bringing the message of peace, but they are thrown out of months of these cities because they were causing unrest. And this is the key. The peace of Christ is unrest.
This vision that we have of following Christ in some kind of a tranquil, as we say, peaceful career, what do we really mean by this? What are we talking about? What do we really want? Well, as I say, when you look at at men and women who have been officially recognized as followers of Christ, we call them saints today, and see their lives, you can say, well, if there's any peace of Christ, they certainly should have it. Very well.
Look at their lives and see what their lives were in most instances. And it takes courage to pray for that kind of peace, believe me. Because the the peace of Christ is the kind of peace that Saint Paul enjoyed. It's the kind of peace that Saint Peter or Saint James enjoyed. Let me tell you, the peace of Christ is the kind of peace that Christ enjoyed.
I don't think we can go much do do better than looking to Christ. What kind of peace did he have in this world? Do you want it? That's what you're praying for. And look where it put him on the cross.
This is tough stuff. This is tough stuff. I've just been reading you the utopia, you know, Thomas More's vision of the no place land, and I just finished reading what he had to say there about death. What is the world's concept of death? Just because that's something that hangs over all of us.
That world the world, and by the world I mean the papers that we read, the shows, the TV, and the general ideals, the general standards of the world. That's what I mean by the world. I don't mean the world of cats and dogs and human beings and trees and sky and the sea that god created, and they are all good. I'm talking about man's world, the product of his creation. What is this attitude towards death?
Forget it. Live as though it wasn't ever going to happen to you. Get rid of all the signs of it. You don't want to it's a very horrible thought to be reminded that one day you're going to die. So we we try to smooth everything out.
And when well, you know how we handle the death in this country. Is that Christ's view of death? Well, more in the utopia with these utopians, he presents it this way. He's not he's talking about the no place land. But the idea that a person should hesitate or not welcome death because of the immortality they believe in, that was unthinkable and was considered grossly dishonorable.
And a person who died fighting death, running away from death, dishonoring death, they were taken outside of the city and buried very perfunctory. But the person who knew they were dying, who accepted death, they were honored. They were buried with a great deal of pomp and circumstance. After the funeral, the families gathered around and and and recalled the life of the deceased to think about them, to re to have a memorial service of the person who had lived a heroic life. This is utopia.
What is your idea about that? Are you running for it? You say, I believe in eternity. I believe in immortality. I believe that God has has sent his son to give me to grant your to give me salvation because that's what it amounts to with a with some cooperation on my part.
Are we very much different from the secular world in our attitude towards death, looking upon it as the greatest of all evils? So much so that we hear this expression when you've lost your health, you've lost everything. It's a common expression. People take it for granted. It's a self evident proposition.
Well, anyway, that when Christ notice, Christ said, peace I leave you. And then he seems to correct himself. My peace I give you. And that's the peace we pray for. It's the peace of Christ.
Saint Augustine in his city of in his confessions had no. It's in the city of God where he says what he gives a definition of peace as the tranquility of order. Now that's kind of highfaluting. The tranquility of order. But what I think he means is this.
This is often quoted, you've heard it I know. It means that whatever be the disturbance around us, however our life is in, how much it's in a turmoil, how much we're being tossed around in this life. If if we are if we are targeting in, if we have a goal, if we're on course, then we have that tranquility of order no matter how rough it is. A ship can be tossed around wildly at sea, but as long as it's on course, then it's from that point of view, it has that tranquility of order. The men on board may say, This is really rough.
I've never seen anything like it. But as long as they're on course, they have a stability. Their minds are at rest, at least as far as that is concerned. Know where they're going. They know what it's all about.
Tranquility of order. And what we're praying for is that we will have our lives possessed of that tranquility which means a life ordered to God, directed to God. And if our lives are in fact not just in words, anybody can spell words, but if our lives are in fact governed by our convergence on God, living for God, seeing all that happens to us under the guise of God's providence, then we can enjoy truly the tranquility of order because that's what we're praying for. We're not praying for the peace as the world gives. Christ said that.
He told us this. We are praying for his peace. May you have a rich share in it. In the name of the father, son, and spirit. Amen.