Easter Sunday 6, C May 22, 2022
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“My peace I give to you.” Of the many gifts Jesus offers, this is probably one of the most requested. “Pray for me to find peace, Father.” And I do so gladly because, after all, Jesus does promise it right here. But what does that peace look like? How do we recognize it, increase it, cooperate with it? In short, the answer is the Holy Spirit.
Notice what Jesus lists right before he mentions peace. “The Holy Spirit… will teach you everything and remind you of all that I told you.” The peace that Christ offers is closely connected to knowledge… the knowledge of what Jesus told us. We see our problems. We recognize our sins and the sins of others. We know that we’re going to suffer… that we’re going to face rejection and pain and possibly death… but we forget the whole story and so we worry. The lack of peace comes from forgetting what the rest of what we believe… what we know to be true.
This is during the last supper. Jesus has just announced his upcoming betrayal by Judas and his abandonment by Peter. Yet he speaks of peace, even rebuking his apostles for not rejoicing that these things are coming. Why? Because he really knows what’s next.
And this knowledge is not an abstract idea. It’s real and tangible to him because of the Holy Spirit. If we want the peace he speaks of, the peace he leaves with us, we need the Holy Spirit and the word he speaks to us. Part of what brings peace to a believer is this knowledge.
Consider the first reading for an example. There was dissension in the early Church because people weren’t sure what to believe. Do gentiles need to be circumcised to be saved? Do all Christians have to follow kosher laws? Without an answer, division and uncertainty are inevitable. Who answers this question? The Apostles tell us in the letter they write: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us.”
The Holy Spirit in and through the Church teaches the truth. The Apostles are depicted as the foundation stones of heaven in the book of Revelation, our second reading. Their authority brings real peace to the Church. It brings peace of mind to those seeking salvation and peace to an external conflict. It reminds everyone that Jesus Christ has not abandoned his Church.
The same is true still today. Notice that the letter from the Apostles tells believers eating blood in it – does that mean we shouldn’t be eating rare steak? It would… if that were still the requirement. This is the thing about our faith and about the truth. Truth does not change, but life does. Different circumstances often call for a different response and it’s not always clear where the truth stays the same and where our way of living the truth changes.
In this case, the unchanging truth is that “we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” and that we should love our neighbor enough to avoid scandalizing them. In the circumstances of the ancient Church, the way to live this out was to avoid certain foods for the sake of the many Jewish Christians who had lived that way their whole lives. As time went on, however, that became less of a problem. So, the Pope and Bishops – successors to the Apostles – acted under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to lift that restriction when it was no longer necessary. It was really the teaching of the Holy Spirit to avoid those foods back then. It really is the teaching the Holy Spirit now that we can eat them now.
An opposite example is the teaching on unlawful marriage, which is included in this same letter. For many of the gentiles, perverse marriages were just as common as eating meat sacrificed to idols. Unlike kosher laws, however, this is more than a mere cultural or ceremonial thing. It’s part of that unchanging truth. So that teaching is the same and will stay the same forever: Marriage is for life and there are certain relationships that simply cannot be a marriage.
When you really dig into Scripture and the history of Christianity, sorting through these differences can be complicated. The basic rule is that morality and doctrine don’t change, but that ceremonial and cultural rules do. Not to get bogged down in technical details, the point is that living our faith is an ongoing reality. Day by day, we have to deal with both the eternal truth of right and wrong and the cultural differences that we happen to live with right now.
Getting these things straight can take work. Confusing them can rob us of peace. Atheists, non-Christians, and protestants all love to use all this against us. They point out changes, the take scripture out of context, the use historical examples and argue that the Church is just making things up. But we aren’t. We mustn’t lose our peace to this. We must remember the Holy Spirit. Our faith is alive. It is continually guided by the Holy Spirit. When faced with the complicated interchange between culture, ceremony, morality, and doctrine, we can find peace in knowing that it isn’t up to us to figure out on our own. The Holy Spirit has been at work and still is. You may be surprised at the answers the Church has answered, sometimes centuries ago.
Do you want peace? Then seek the Holy Spirit. Start by asking for the Holy Spirit. This Thursday, we being the Holy Spirit Novena. I’ll post it on our website and have copies in the Church and we’ll pray it before each Mass during those nine days.
Secondly – and this is the one I’ve been focusing on – learn your Catholic faith! The Holy Spirit is not just the Catholic version of the Force from Star Wars. The Holy Spirit teaches the truth in and through the Church. When you learn the truth, you are encountering the Holy spirit. He also reminds us of Jesus’ teaching. If you’ve spent time learning the faith, even if you forget, you’ve just created an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to work. He will remind you of what you need when you need it… if you took the time and energy to learn in the first place.
Finally, remember that God is love and God is in charge. The reason we lose peace is that we forget this. He didn’t give us the Holy Spirit to trap us in complicated to-do lists. He gave him to us to remind us that we’re not alone and we’re not in charge. If you remember nothing else, remember this: Peace is ultimatelyl not the absence of trials, but the presence of trust… a trust that everything – even our own faults and failings – works for the good of those who love God. So love Him! Ask for the Holy Spirit, take time to learn what He teaches, and trust that He succeeds even when we fail.