DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Saturday, June 30, 2018

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.  – John 14:27

Christ gives to the disciples the gift of Peace, a peace that is of another quality than the worldly peace of treaties and temporary cessation of hostilities.  This Peace that Christ bestowed to His disciples is the Peace of Eden before Eden succumbed to human selfishness.  This Peace that Christ endowed to His disciples was a Peace crafted out of a More Perfect Love rather than conjured out of fear and condemnation.

Christ gives His disciples the gift of Peace, but soon conflicts would flare up, most of the disciples would be martyred, many would be sent into exile, and all would be spurned by the supposedly devout.  Yet He says that He gives them Peace … a Peace that will endure and survive the hatred, a Peace that will carry them through these years of rejection and hostility.

This quality of Peace I imagine in the quality of soul in old, oak trees.  Storms come, yet they endure.  Wounds come, yet they continue.  Seasons change, yet they keep steady their pace.  They are rooted; they are weathered; they are committed to growing; they communicate a quiet strength, a steady manner, a fearlessness of whatever might come.  At least, in my soul’s sense of an oak tree’s soul… and maybe this is why … I go to them to restore my inner peace.

After Christ’s resurrection, none of the disciples surrendered to fear … they did not resort to violence … they did not loathe their enemies … they did not abandon their cause … rather they provided nests for the young ones and shade for the old ones.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz