Is it Almost Time for Peace to be Ushered in?

Is it Almost Time for Peace to be Ushered in?

But what type of peace are most people looking for?  With so many nations’ leaders sitting with their hands on nuclear weapons around the globe, many people in vulnerable countries shudder at the thought of global war.  Peace at any price! 

Then there is discontent in schools where the powers that be began promoting the idea that young children should reconsider their sexual gender.  With the Trump Administration now in place that will certainly end.  Peace that should be protecting our young.

Two people who once professed vows before God are at each other’s throats and how much in monetary goods will each one fight for in divorce court.  An attorney once told me that she had a couple arguing over a bottle of laundry detergent.  How far some will go to find a peace that may not have been there in the first place.  Where is peace when the alimony begins?

Ok, let’s put this into perspective when the term peace is not an entity that is promised by anyone looking for a Rose Garden.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  Not as the world gives do I give it to you.  Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.”  (Jn 14: 27).  

Jesus, after his Resurrection, greeted the disciples with, “Peace be with you.”  When he had said this he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, and whose sins you retain are retained.”  (Jn 20: 19 - 23).

This is the peace that Jesus spoke of; the reason he was sent by the Father to explicitly prove that this peace for mankind is not an absence of wars, correction of our school system, or simple marriage problems.  It all lies in the fact that an eternity free from the death that sin brings is forgiven and it, like a virus that is communicable, spreads throughout those who seek his mercy and share that grace with all they encounter.

Peace, as portrayed by Jesus after he is Risen, is the forgiveness the Church, through its ordained priesthood, brings a peace unknown or unfelt by sinners who keep their weaknesses hidden from absolution.  

R. I. P. (rest in peace) words found on tombstones throughout the world’s cemeteries may be crying out for the real meaning of peace for the remains buried there.  What a terrible loss if the many who died without God’s forgiveness are not experiencing the Real Peace found with God’s Mercy.

Ralph B. Hathaway