For all the progress and development that have taken place in the world, it is still a world gripped in fear and anxiety. It takes so little to throw people into panic and endless worrying. There is so much conflict in our world today. There are so many wars raging in different places around the globe. So many lives are wasted by hunger, poverty and disease. Every day seems like going through endless tempests and struggling through stormy seas. The deepest longing of the human heart is for some respite from all the storms and tempests of life.
That is exactly what the Risen Lord offered his disciples right after the resurrection: “Peace be with you.” Through his own Passover, Christ passed over from death into life, from darkness into light so that he might bring us from slavery to freedom, from sin to grace. And at his rising, he greets us and give us his “Peace!”
What is the peace of Christ? Francis of Assisi has taught us what the peace of Christ is all about. It is transforming hatred into love, meeting injury with pardon, living in faith when there is doubt, bringing hope where there is despair, lighting up when there is darkness and being joyful even in the midst of sadness.
Francis took to heart the teachings of the Lord and took these teachings literally, not in some allegorical or metaphoric sense. He understood and lived the truth that it is giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned and in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
Luke 24:35-48