Homily Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C

Homily Sixth Sunday of Easter Year C

 Today Gospel reading bring us back to the scene of the night of the Last Supper.  We would take the places of the Twelve Apostles, gathered around the banquet table with Jesus. We listen to His mysterious and glorious words. It is the last meal Jesus had with his closest friends. He wants to leave them a gift before he departing from them.

What is it?  What does Christ want to leave to his Apostles at the Last Supper?

Peace. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you." And what does he mean by peace? It is not what we usually think: "Not as the world gives do I give it to you." The peace of Jesus is lasting. It is interior peace of heart, which overflows into peace in families, in communities, in entire nations.  It is the peace that comes from knowing without any doubt whatsoever that we are loved by him.

It is the peace that comes from knowing without any doubt whatsoever that whenever we offend him, he will always be ready to forgive us.  It is the peace that comes from knowing without any doubt whatsoever that we have a purpose in life, a mission; the mission that Jesus himself has given us: to spread his Kingdom.

As we heard the Psalm today:" May He let his face shine upon us. So, may your way be known upon earth; among all nations, your salvation."  Only because Jesus has given us this peace, by giving us faith in his love, mercy, and mission, he can command us: "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid."   

If our peace were based on anything else: popularity, wealth, comfort, or power, it would be unstable, because all those things are vulnerable to change. But the peace of Jesus Christ isn't vulnerable, because it's based on his love, mercy, and mission, and those are everlasting.

Seventeen years ago, the Vietnamese Cardinal Francis Xavier Nguyen van Thuan died in Rome, exiled from his homeland. Everyone who knew him during the last years of his life was impressed by his interior peace and joy. He was someone who had found Jesus Christ's peace, the stability that comes from discovering and clinging to the deeper truths. Before his exile he was serving as the first Vietnamese Bishop in my diocese of NhaTrang then Archbishop of Saigon. After the Vietnam War, when the communists took over the South Vietnam in April 75, he was arrested by the communist authorities and spent the next 13 years in prison without a trial, as the communists tried unsuccessfully to destroy the Catholic Church in that country. Nine of those 13 years archbishop Thuan was spent in solitary confinement, in gruesome conditions and horrible privations. At first the communist authorities decided to have only two guards watch over the Archbishop, so as not to risk contaminating too many young soldiers with the Archbishop's Catholic ideas. But after a month, Archbishop Thuan had made friends with both of them and taught them some Christian hymns and prayers. Officials were forced to rotate guards every week in order to avoid such embarrassing conversions. But the rotation strategy backfired. The holy bishop radiated Christ's goodness so powerfully, even in the midst of his emotional and physical suffering, that he would win over his guards without even trying, sparking their curiosity and interest in his "secret”; that is, his faith. In the end, they went back to assigning two permanent guards. It was better to lose two than twenty. 

That's the kind of interior strength and peace of mind that Jesus wants to give us.  It is good to be reminded of this. We need to be reminded that the love of Jesus, and His mercy, and mission can give us the interior peace we long for, that as our friendship with Him grows, so will our experience of that peace. That's why this theme keeps coming up during the Easter season.  Even so, most of us probably don't experience this peace as much as we would like to. And yet, we do experience it. When life's storms come, we know where to go. We know that Jesus is here for us. We can turn to him in prayer. We can experience him in the Eucharist and in confession. We can run to his Mother, Mary, the Queen of Peace. But so many people around us never experience this peace.  They don't know where to go. They don't know that the friendship of Jesus is the root of peace. They have not tasted his love or mercy. They don't know that God created them for a mission. If we who believe in Jesus and have His friendship still find life so difficult, still struggle to experience the interior peace we are called to, imagine how much more difficult and turbulent it is those who do not know Jesus.  The good news is that we can help them.  We can introduce them to Jesus. Our prayers, words, example, and actions can bring them the message that Jesus has brought to us.