Blog Post 6/09/2022 - Peace - How can we find it?

 

The prophet Isaiah says “…as a mother comforts her child so will I comfort you.”  It is hard to imagine a more peaceful situation/scene.  In the Gospel St Luke recounts Jesus saying, “Peace be to this household.”

 

 

Who would not like to have PEACE:

            for ourselves,

            for our families,

            for our friends,

            for our nation,

            and for the world!

 

Most, if not all of us, desire PEACE.  But the time for PEACE to arrive and permeate the earth is not ours to decide, but it is ours to work for.  Jesus sent 72 disciples to bring the

Good News – 72 were sent to prepare for the Lord’s arrival, to witness to God’s peace to each person they met.  He sends us to do the same work!  It was difficult for the 72, it will be difficult for us – rest assured we will be mocked, scorned, shunned and persecuted.

 

“Helen Keller could neither see nor hear, yet she became a great public speaker.  One night someone asked her this question,  “If you could have one wish granted what would it be?’  She said, ‘I’d like world peace.’” (Action Year C p.265)

 

Wow, not to hear, not to see BUT world peace.  How much of an instrument of PEACE are you, or am I, in our workplace/home/neighborhood?  How can we become better disciples of Jesus’ PEACE?  May be this short story, “The search for the magic seed” can help.  “There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died.

 

In her grief, she pleaded w/ a monk renowned for his holiness: ‘what prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life? …the monk said (to her),

‘Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow.  We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life.’

 

The woman set off at once in search of the magical mustard seed.  She knocked on the door of a splendid mansion and said, ‘ I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow.  Is this such a place?  It is very important to me.’  They told her, ‘You’ve certainly come to the wrong place’, and then they began to describe to her the tragic things that had befallen their household.

 

The woman said to herself, ‘Who better able to help these poor unfortunate people than I who have had misfortune of my own?’  She stayed to offer what help & comfort she could & then continued on her way.  The results were the same wherever she stopped whether at a hovel or a palace, tales of sadness and misfortune.  She became so involved in ministering to other people’s grief that she forgot her quest for the magical seed.  The magic seed was her compassion.  (Table Talk Year C, Jay Cormier, p.151-152)

 

The old Chinese tale reminds us that we are at our best when we put other’s needs first at in doing that we will be blessed.  We are challenged to bring God’s Kingdom of compassion and justice to our daily lives by the manner in which we live those lives.

 

What in your life is evidence that you are a disciple of Jesus Christ?  Reflect on that question today.

 

           

May God Be Blessed!