for May 12
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

Some years ago, I remember spending the better part of a day at a small gathering with Cardinal Joseph Bernardin when he served as leader of the Archdiocese of Chicago. It was a pleasure to meet and speak with Cardinal Bernardin personally for some time that day. He impressed me a great deal. One clear recollection I have of that day is how the Cardinal exuded a deep inner peace and calm that was most evident in his person. I found this to be an attractive part of his presence at the meeting. I am sure that this quality of his own being and personality opened up and enriched the dialogue we shared.

The Gospel of John today and Jesus’s promise to his disciples also remind me of a wonderful and moving book that Cardinal Bernardin wrote during the last few months of his life. He was struggling with the final stages of cancer at the time he wrote this book entitled The Gift of Peace: Personal Reflections (1997). The book details the journey of his life—in particular, the last three years that included major personal and professional struggles and disappointments. In one place he writes “I can say in all sincerity that I am at peace. I consider this as God’s special gift to me.” This observation came in 1996 when Cardinal Bernardin announced that his cancer had returned after being in remission for fifteen months. The Cardinal was beginning the process of saying goodbye to those he loved and had worked with during an extraordinary life of service to the Church and the world. In John’s Gospel today we have Jesus doing something similar.

John’s gospel presents Jesus saying farewell to his disciples and offering them the gift of peace. During these recent weeks of the Easter season we have heard similar messages from Jesus. In the resurrection appearances on multiple occasions, Jesus repeats the phrase “Peace be with you” and encourages his disciples and friends by his very presence. Jesus is preparing to return to the Father and he promises to send the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to remain with the disciples and to guide them. It is significant that the peace Jesus promises is entirely unique and different from the peace that the world gives. The peace that Jesus offers is “his” peace which flows from his own intimate relationship with the Father. This gift of peace includes the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.

The first reading from Acts presents a very different situation. St. Paul and his companions face violence and rejection. Paul is physically attacked (“stoned and dragged”) out of the city. He and his fellow companions on mission endure much hardship for the sake of the mission. Here Paul encounters what seems like the exact opposite of the peace promised by Jesus in his experience of the violence and hatred so alive and powerful in the world. Yet Paul and his companions trust in the promises of the Lord they hold near and dear to protect and guide them even in difficult situations of their mission. Paul and his friends are able to hold onto a sense of peace and trust in the Lord’s presence. This experience gives them courage and strength to carry on.

We continue to live in very unsettled and difficult times. The Lord’s promise of peace to us is especially welcome for all of us right now. Personally, I welcome these words of Jesus. I need to hear this message and take it to heart. There is much to be worried about these days and such concerns can disrupt our own longings for and experience of inner peace. Christians and their communities over the centuries have learned by real experience that the kind of peace that the world gives never completely satisfies the human heart and mind. In fact, so much so, these wonderful and welcome words of Jesus “Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give to you” have become part of our communal ritual prayer in the celebration of the Eucharist at Mass. The Lord indeed gives a different kind of peace—it lasts even through very difficult times and in the great transitions of life. Cardinal Bernardin saw this and shared this insight in his own life journey. I think we all can recognize in our own lives that the peace that the world gives is often fragile—and even the many very good parts of our real lives in the world—eventually pass away and cannot really sustain or fulfill our deepest human longings. The gift of peace and the Spirit that Jesus promises and gives to us remains. We can trust the peace he gives and live deep within it as we continue in our own journeys of life.
—Francis T. Hannafey SJ

Today’s readings can be found at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops website.