Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

6TH SUNDAY OF EASTER (May 13, 2007)

Suggested Emphasis

"My peace is my gift to you...but not as the world gives peace."

Salesian Perspective

Jesus makes a distinction in today's Gospel between the "peace as the world offers it" and the peace that comes from him.

Just what does Jesus mean?

The American Heritage Dictionary on the English Language may provide us with some clues. It defines peace as: "1.The absence of war or hostilities. 2. An agreement or treaty to end hostilities. 3. Freedom from quarrels or disagreements; harmonious relations. 4. Public security and order. 5.Inner contentment; serenity."

The vision of peace that the world offers - appropriately enough - tells us that in order to experience true inner contentment we must first establish a world in which there is no war, no hostility, no quarrels, no disagreements, no public disorder or chaos. Tempting as this vision is to pursue, history - the world's, and our own - painfully illustrates how truly fleeting and fallacious is this promise of peace…at least, this way of going about it.

By contrast, the peace that Jesus promises starts from within. It's about having a sense of integrity. It's about having a sense of purpose. It's about having a sense of meaning. It's about having a sense of mission. Ultimately, it's about having a clear and unambiguous sense of self, a self that is only fully understood and actualized in the context of one's relationship with God, oneself and others.

This is the kind of peace that the world cannot give.

Ironically, it is Jesus' promise of inner peace that offers the greatest hope for world peace. Only when we have first set aside our own personal hostilities, can we truly work for a world free of war. Only when we have first set aside our own need to always be right, can we strive for a world in which disagreements are not the last word. Only when we have first established some order and direction in our own lives, can we hope to achieve the same on a greater scale. Only when we experience the power and possibility that comes from knowing - and embracing - who we really are in the sight of God, can we become sources of that same power and possibility in the lives of others.

God's peace is not measured by the absence of conflict. God's peace is a function of how dedicated each one of us is to first knowing who we are so that we can see more clearly what the world can be and what steps we must take - together - to make that ideal, however fleeting or fragile, a reality.

Want world peace? Think global. But, like Jesus, act local. As the last line of a well-known hymn challenges, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin…with me."

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS, is the Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.