TEXT:
THEME: In Me You May Have Peace
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What is peace? Men consider peace to be a cessation of hostilities, or a lack of hostilities, between nations. But the Lord Jesus bestows a different peace unto His holy Church. To be sure, it is a similar peace; but men come and go, kingdoms rise and fall; yet the peace of God in Christ remains to eternity. The peace Christ bestows is peace between God and man, peace from sin, death, and the devil. Yet, the way in which Our Lord wins peace is far from peaceful. For true peace is won only by His holy innocent sufferings and death.
Jesus tells
His Apostles that He is leaving the world and going to the Father. He is speaking of His fulfillment of the
Father’s will by His death, resurrection, and ascension; but the Apostles still
do not understand, and neither do we always understand either. When the day of tribulation and suffering
comes, our natural instinct would be to turn away, to desert Jesus at the first
sign of trouble, as the Apostles before us did in
Previously, God had declared His peace by stretching out His bow across the sky. But now, the Father has declared His eternal peace by stretching out His only Son across the beams of the cross; the Father’s purpose fulfilled, salvation achieved for a world full of sinners, all by what Jesus has done: the offering of His Body and the shedding of His Blood. Take heart; Christ has fulfilled the Father’s will. He suffered the punishment of the Father’s wrath for you! He burst the prison house of death for you, opening the gates of Heaven to all who believe! Yet, not even death could hold onto Him who is the Author of Life and the Slayer of death. Jesus has risen, He has conquered and been victorious; for you and on your behalf, He has overcome the world. There, upon the cross, is the full, public, and plain revelation of the Father and of His love, mercy, and peace. No longer are we enemies of God; peace has been restored in the Blood of the Lamb. But it is necessary for Our Lord to return to the Father. For now, at the Father’s right hand, there is a Man who ever intercedes on our behalf, pointing to the wounds of His Body and to His shed Blood, speaking to the Father on our behalf every good thing about us. And it is from the Father’s right hand that this Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, sends the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who bestows upon us the peace of the Father won by Christ, through the Sacraments.
In Holy Baptism, Christ’s word is spoken over water, and by the working of the Holy Spirit, it becomes for us a washing of regeneration and re-birth. At the font, faith is created in us by the Holy Spirit. Here, the radiant Bride of the Lamb bears perfect and holy children for Her glorious Bridegroom through Her watery womb of Baptism. Here, His righteousness and holiness is exchanged for our sin and filth; our names written in His Book of Life. No longer are we unclean nor detestable nor false. No longer are we enemies of God; no longer do we beg Him as pitiful servants beg their master for a crumb from his table. No. By faith, we love the resurrected and glorious Lord Jesus and He loves us; yet not only does Christ love us, but now the Father Himself loves us for we have loved His only-begotten Son. Now we are heirs of God and inheritors of His Kingdom. Now, we may approach the Father through the Spirit in the Name of Jesus as dear children approach their dear father in all boldness and confidence. For God is our true Father who loves each one of us and delights in each one of us on account of the sacrifice once offered by His only-begotten Son.
Nor does Our Lord any longer speak to us in hard sayings, no longer does He speak to us in figures of speech. Now He speaks to us openly and plainly; now He speaks plainly that we may have understanding. Through His holy Word, and through the mouths of His pastors whom He sends in His stead, Christ continues to announce to us the grace of His Father and the peace which only He can bestow through the forgiveness of sins. Now, not only does He speak openly and plainly, but now He also deals with us in the plain, concrete forms of bread and wine. In the Meal of the Holy Eucharist, the Holy Spirit carries out His work of keeping us in the one true Faith by the eating and drinking of the Sacrifice offered by Christ: the Sacrifice of His Body and Blood. In this Meal of the Altar, the Man seated at the Father’s right hand speaks to us saying, “Take, eat. Take, drink. This is My Body and My Blood offered to My Father that you may have peace by the forgiveness of all of your sins.” Here, again, God is revealed as our Father who gives to us every good thing in His Son Christ Jesus. Here, at the Altar, we receive the love, mercy, and peace of the Father revealed on the cross. Here, the Peace of the cross, the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, is physically placed into our mouths for the forgiveness of sins.
We know that Jesus has come from God; His words testify to this, His death and resurrection testify to this. By His death and resurrection, He has won peace with God for us. By His ascension to the Father’s right hand, now a Man ever intercedes on our behalf, pointing to the wounds which He endured for us. From the Father’s right hand, He sends to us the Holy Spirit, who calls and gathers us in the Church through the Sacraments. In the Sacraments, we today still see Christ face to face as He bestows peace with God to us. Now we approach God as children approaching their dear Father. The gates of Heaven are open to us, as our names are now written in the Blood of the Lamb in the Book of Life. Rejoice! For in the One who died and rose again, we have peace. Take heart; He has overcome the world for us.
In the Name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.