Gospel (Jn 14:27-31a)

^“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. You heard me say to you, ‘I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe. I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.”

Commentary

Each day at Mass we hear these words that the priest addresses directly to the Second Person of the Most Holy Trinity, who at that moment has made himself present in the Consecrated Host: “Lord Jesus Christ, who said to your Apostles: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you, look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church.” These familiar words can help us go deeper into the meaning of what our Lord wants to tell his apostles and, with them, also us.

Jesus wants to help us understand that faith is a deep source of peace. But he also wants to make it clear to us that faith is not thinking that everything will go well. In fact, a few hours later our Lord will be hanging from the wood of the Cross.

What Jesus wants is that we trust He is “the true light that illumines every man” (Jn 1:9). But believing that Jesus is light implies that darkness exists. Therefore faith is not thinking that everything is rosy; it is not a sugary optimism. Rather it is taking seriously the consequences of our Lord’s Cross and not losing sight of the fact that there we find the answer to all our questions and perplexities.

So when we hear these words at Mass we can ask ourselves: what is my faith like – the faith that I ask our Lord to look at instead of my sins? Fortunately, we are not the only one involved: we ask our Lord to look at the faith of his Church. And the faith of the Church is nourished by the Eucharist, the sacraments, and personal and communal prayer.

Our Lord tells the apostles that He must return to the Father: “I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place, you may believe.” And He asks us for faith in something that has already happened, but that continues to illumine all human realities with the same strength as the first day of the Resurrection.

Therefore when our faith falters and as a result we lose our peace, we can turn to Mary, Teacher of Faith and Queen of Peace. Our Lady will remind us that her Son does not want to give us something that belongs to this world. He wants to enable us to share in the love with which the three divine Persons of the Blessed Trinity love one another.