Sixth Sunday of Easter - Year C - 9th May 2010

"Peace is my farewell gift to you".

How often have we heard people say, 'I'd give anything for a bit of peace.' 'Thank God that one is gone, we have peace.' 'He's at peace now anyway.' Do you notice how we use that word? Peace? More often an idea of absence than anything else. Hassle gone away. Troublesome people gone away. Most of the time we would like more peace. Yet we live in a world of tension.

Even the closest of families sometimes have to deal with eruptions of anger. Friends and neighbours can fall out. On a larger scale we know of conflict and war in the world. In the Church itself we find disagreements which can be painful at times. How many people constantly chase after peace, but never find it. The "world" and contemporary ''Western culture" offer all kinds of ways to come to peace, but they never seem to satisfy... leading only to restlessness, addiction, and at times, sin. So often we seek peace from people and in places that cannot give us lasting peace.

Jesus tells his disciples that he will give them a peace the world cannot give. Jesus understands that there will be turmoil ahead. The cross awaits him, and the disciples will feel lost. But for those who keep their hearts open to him, there will be a peace that can make itself felt even in times of turbulence. In this sense, peace can be like an anchor. On the water, the ship moves up and down in a heavy swell. But it is securely anchored, and in that knowledge there is peace.

We too will find peace if we trust in God and anchor our lives in his love for us. The notion of God making a home within us is one of the most peaceful and warming images of the whole Bible. Peace is much more than the absence of conflict. To be free of conflict might mean that nothing much is happening in one's life. The peace that Christ gives us is something deeper and richer. It comes from knowing that Christ i; there in our heart, giving us the peace that surpasses all understanding, (Phil. 4.7).

His peace means living in God. In, not with. Presence, not absence. When we keep his word we go where he goes. We do as he does. We anchor our lives in the Trinity. It is there that we find our security and our peace.

The basis of peace is God's love. The secret of peace is our trust in God.