MEDITATION OF THE DAY
True Peace
The greeting of the resurrected Christ, Peace be with you, is the watchword of definitive triumph. To participate in this peace, to receive it, means to participate already in the peace of the Resurrection…. We must not confuse true peace with the illusion of peace. This latter is the peace of ignorance, the peace of feigned innocence that dances around difficulties, the peace of the rich man who ignores Lazarus. True peace grows out of the tension between two contrary elements: the acceptance of a present in which we recognize our weakness as sinners, and, at the same time, passing beyond the same present as if we were already freed from the burden of sin…. We are not talking about an easy peace, but rather a demanding one. Peace does not eliminate fragility or deficiencies. This peace enables us to choose a state of life and to do God’s will. It is not the peace the world gives, but the peace of the Lord.
Our God is the God of peace. He desired to give us this peace, by pacifying us in his Son, so that we too would transmit it in turn, as the bond of communion that preserves unity. The advent of this peace was made known to all on Christmas Eve, and the echo of this announcement resounds all the way to Palm Sunday. We have been asked to seek it, and to direct our feet into the way of peace (Lk 1:79), for all of us have been called to live in peace. May this peace guard our hearts and minds and inspire us to seek peace with all men and women.
Pope Francis
His Holiness Pope Francis was elected to the See of Saint Peter in 2013. [From In Him Alone Is Our Hope: Spiritual Exercises Given to His Brother Bishops in the Manner of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Fr. Vincent Capuano, s.j., Andrew Matt, Trs. © 2013, Magnificat, Yonkers, NY. All rights reserved.]
