Sixth Sunday in Easter. May 9th, 2010

The last few weeks we have been speaking about the deepest form of love known to man, that of Agape love. Agape love is a sacrificial love, a human love elevated to the divine. Agape love is only possible in a human heart to the degree that that human heart offers itself in love to the God who loved us first.

Our Gospel today shows us how God loved us first. Our Lord here, is preparing to enter into His passion and death in which he would prove his love for us with the greatest act of agape love the world as ever seen. Jesus in divine love would totally pour Himself out sacrificially for love of each one of us on the Cross.
And so, it is in the preparation for His passion that Jesus says to us, “If a man love me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we shall come to him and make our home with him.” Loving Jesus first and foremost is the key to the Father’s Love.

But this love for Jesus must be shown and expressed through action. Love is shown in deeds, not in sweet words. And so love is shown in obedience to God's Word. Obeying God’s word means keeping His commandments and living His teachings, which come to us through His Holy Church. It is in and through the Church that we have been promised the Holy Spirit to help us understand this truth and to be our helper in living it in our lives.

It is this obedience to the truth in our lives that brings us the peace that the world can not give…because the world rejects this truth and refuses to live in obedience to it, the world has no peace. Rejection of the truth is ultimately a refusal to love God, by refusing to live one’s life in obedience to the truth that comes from God. The result is a lack of peace. And if there is one thing that defines our world today, it is a lack of peace.

I think it was Pope VI that once said, peace is much more than just a lack of war. People in the world mistakenly think that all of our advancements in technology are going to give us peace and make us happy. Instead, in the last thirty to forty years the increases in the amount of crime, violence, and moral degradation in our society have surpassed what many of us never dreamed possible, not to mention the fear of terrorism and war. Peace is more elusive than ever and what takes it’s place is a general feeling of insecurity and fear. Everyone deep down knows things are not as they should be, and this leads to an increase of fear, fear of what the future may hold.

As result, we see a fear of giving oneself in love for another; fear of making lifelong commitments in marriage and in one’s vocation; fear of bringing new life into the world; and above all, fear of not being loved. Psychiatrists and other therapist are literally swamped with clients, depression is rampant, and suicide is on the increase, especially among our youth, who have more material goods than any other generation in history.

And what is the remedy that most turn to in order to alleviate this fear which stems from a lack of peace? Diversion; noise, lots of noise, TV, music, sex, computer games, pornography, drugs- baseless entertainment and amusement, the list is long. Our generation craves diversion, because it lacks peace. What is the solution?

The solution is to turn back to the love of God by setting the diversions aside, especially the diversion of noise and returning in silence to the One who speaks in silence…the living and true God. In silence, alone with oneself and alone with God, we can hear the voice of God who speaks in the silence to our heart.

A few years ago there was a interesting movie that was all about silence before God. It was actually entitled, “Into the Great Silence.” This three hour movie about the lives of Carthusian monks, had hardly any spoken words at all, yet it the movie was a surprise hit. What is it that made this movie about silence so appealing to such a noisy world?

One of the comments about the monks in the movie is that they live in no fear…they live with peace, the peace that they have acquired through the years of silently nurturing their relationship with God. They have deepened their faith that they are indeed sons of a loving Father who loves them, each of them with a unique unfathomable love.

In their faith in Jesus Christ and their striving to live in obedience to His words found in Sacred Scripture and interpreted by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Church, they have found that solace that the human heart looks for, the solace that comes from living the world behind and living for love of God alone. And this is really the test in this life isn't it?; whether we turn to human beings and to the things of this world for our solace, or turn to God.

We don’t have to become Carthusion monks, but we do have to have the living obedient faith of Carthusion monks. In other words, we need show our love for Jesus by obeying His words, His commandments and teachings and trusting in Him alone. We need to come in contact with God in silent prayer, especially silent prayer before God in the Holy Eucharist.

Thank God, Jesus doesn’t leave us on our own to live the obedience of faith. The strength to do so comes from Jesus who ascended to the Father in victory but nevertheless returns to us through the Sacraments. Through the Sacraments Jesus provides us with the spiritual strength we need to show our love for the Father by obedience to His commandments and His will and so live in true peace.

By the way, this is what is meant at the sign of peace during the Mass. The sign of peace is not about us sharing our peace with one another…it is about receiving Christ’s peace. The priest looks down at Jesus truly present in the Eucharist as he says, “Jesus Christ, you said to your apostles, I leave you peace my peace I give you…and then the priest receives it from the Eucharist and offers it to the people whose hearts are open to it, by saying the Peace of Christ be with you…He then invites those present to share Jesus peace with one other.

The Holy Father recently reminded us that this action is not meant to be a free for all…first and foremost we are sharing Jesus peace with one another, not our own peace. For this reason the sharing of the peace of Christ is to be done in a subdued manner with person next to you, who passes it on…it is not suppose to be an attempt to shake every single person’s hand around you. It’s not about us, it’s about Christ; the peace comes from Christ, not from each other and so our attention should stay on the Eucharist, not on each other.

The peace of Christ that comes to us is an assurance of spiritual, saving strength that goes beyond a simple gesture or simple words. The peace of the Lord is not given as the world gives peace. Christ’s peace is not an absence of conflict or suffering. It is a peace that comes from knowing that we are God’s children who depend totally on Him for everything-everything and that we will never have true peace until we turn to him for everything and love him above everything, above everything this world has to offer. It is a peace that comes from loving God and showing this love by living in obedience to his commandments and His Catholic Church.

Let us open our hearts to this Peace at this Holy Mass realizing the Mass is the sacrament instituted by Christ to bring the world peace. In fact, the more that faith in the Mass and the Holy Eucharist is lost, the more the Mass and the Eucharist is ignored or treated as a time for feel good noisy entertainment instead of a time for a silent intimate reverential encounter with the living God in adoration and worship, the more we will lack peace and live in fear.

If you want peace, come in silence before the Holy Eucharist and adore the living Jesus silently present there. It’s hard for us to do that because of the silence, the Eucharist makes no earthly noise, but it is in that silence before the living God truly present in the Holy Eucharist that we will find the peace that we are looking for, the peace that the world cannot give because it is in the Holy Eucharist that we will find the strength to love God with deeds, in obedience to His truth. And then, then we will be able to love Him with an agape love and love other’s with a agape love for love of Him, for He will come and make His Home in us, His own love alive in our souls and in our hearts.

On this Mother's day, I want to end with a saying from Mother Theresa of Calcutta. She learned agape love in adoration, in silent contemplation before the Eucharist. There she learned to see the true face of God in every suffering human being and showed her love for God by obedience to His word which resulted in her life of peace, lived in service to God and neighbor. Mother of Theresa said…
The fruit of silence is PRAYER.
The fruit of prayer is FAITH.
The fruit of faith is LOVE.
The fruit of love is SERVICE.
The fruit of service is PEACE.