Peace of Christ

We often hear Jesus referred to as the Prince of Peace. And I think, in general, we like to think of Jesus as the one who brings peace to our world. Images of the lion lying down with the lamb, or the sword being thrust into the plowshare come to mind. But when we come to to the nitty-gritty of daily grind, and see the chaos around us, we can't help but wonder, what is peace?

If it is an absence of conflict, few of us can ever hope to have it for any length of time. For life is full of reverses, unexpected events, and challenges. We only need to read the daily papers. Wars, conflicts, abuse, pain, poverty, disloyalty and dishonesty certainly abound in our world. So, where is this prince of peace? Can it be that the peace of Christ is so easily vanquished by evil?

No. That is the world's peace. That is what we are led to expect when we have little faith, when we do not get what we want, when we shake our fist and cry out, where is God in all of this! That is our problem, we want peace to be an absence of trouble.

The Peace of Christ is not so shallow, so superficial, so fragile. It resides deeper inside of us, giving us strength and perspective to deal with these vicissitudes of life. The true peace Christ gives is strong, stronger than conflict, stronger than troubles, stronger than even death.


And once you realize that, you become that very image of peace. For you know. And in that knowing, you are centered, are sure, are secure.

Peace to all of you.