Sunday Reflections

Hope that Leads to Peace       

Resurrectionists are called to build, and to teach others to build, a Christian community “in which all can experience the hope, joy, and peace of Christ’s Resurrection” (Charism Statement of the Congregation of the Resurrection).  Our gospel today focuses on the peace that the Risen Lord longs to bestow upon the early disciples and upon us today.  Like the early disciples, we can find ourselves anxious and disturbed, not only by the trials and tribulations of our daily lives, but also by the troubling events of our world.  In the midst of these disconcerting events—personally and worldly—the Risen Lord yearns for us to be filled with His peace. 

In terms of us personally, that peace comes from the conviction that God will be able to bring about God’s plan—of us being united with God—despite our own sinfulness and any obstacles that we or others put in the way. We can live with a confident HOPE that what God accomplished for Jesus, will be accomplished for us.  For not even death can stand between us and the love that God has for us!  This confident HOPE in God’s power is what fills us with PEACE.

In terms of the world, that peace is a work in progress.  Like the disciples, we have been commissioned to be witnesses to the Resurrection, to be witnesses to the enduring love of God which will never be defeated no matter what tyranny or hatred the world endures.  Working for justice in the midst of a world filled with injustice and evil can be discouraging.  But, again, we are called to live with a confident HOPE that what God accomplished for Jesus, will be accomplished for our world.  Our efforts might seem so small in the midst of the messiness of the world—perhaps as small as a mustard seed!—but Jesus has taught us to trust that God will be able to bring about growth and transformation beyond our imaginings.  This knowledge can bring us a certain PEACE knowing that while we are called to participate in the mission of Christ, it is ultimately God’s work, and God will never fail to bring about God’s plan—the renewal of all things in Christ!