16th May >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflection on John 14:27-31 for Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter: 'My own peace I give you'. (2024)

16th May >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflection on John 14:27-31 for Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter: 'My own peace I give you'.

Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

Gospel (Except USA)

Jesus said to his disciples:

‘Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you,

a peace the world cannot give,

this is my gift to you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

You heard me say: I am going away, and shall return.

If you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father,

for the Father is greater than I.

I have told you this now before it happens,

Reflections (8)

(i) Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks to his disciples on the night of the Last Supper of his going away, his going to the Father. His death will involve a real departure which will be difficult for his disciples. If they had their way they would not have wanted him to go away. Yet, Jesus says to his disciples that if they really loved him they would be glad to know that he is going to the Father. If they really loved him, they would not try to hold onto him. They would rejoice to let him go to the one who sent him, because in going back to the Father Jesus can do so much more for his disciples and for disciples of ever generation than if he stayed. In going to the Father he will pass into a new and more glorious life and he will open up a way to that life for all who believe in him. Through his going to the Father, he will be able to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples. Jesus is saying to his disciples that his departure is very much to their advantage and to the advantage of all his followers. That is why if they really loved Jesus, they would be glad he is going to the Father and they would willingly let them go. Jesus is reminding us that, sometimes, the greatest expression of our love for others can be to let them go, and not try to hold onto them, to let them go to whatever God wishes and desires for them.

See Also

EASTER V (Sunday, April 28th)

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

The opening words of Jesus in today’s gospel reading may sound familiar to you, ‘Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you’. A version of those words have made their way into the text of our Mass, just before the sign of peace, ‘Lord Jesus Christ who said to your Apostles: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you’. Jesus spoke those words to his disciples in the setting of the last supper. They had heard Jesus say to them that he was going away and that he would return. They were disturbed by his talk of going away. The full reality of what was about to happen on the following day was beginning to dawn on them. Their hearts were troubled and afraid. In that sombre setting, Jesus gives them the gift of his own peace, which he identifies as a peace the world cannot give. Jesus was at peace in this hour and he wanted his disciples to experience something of his own peace. Jesus was at peace in spite of the fact that, as he says in the gospel reading, ‘the prince of the world is on his way’. This is a likely reference to Satan and to all those who are in Satan’s power. Jesus is at peace in the full knowledge that evil stalks the land. His peace is rooted in his loving relationship with God his Father. This is the peace that Jesus gives to his disciples, to all of us. It is a peace that is rooted in God’s love for us through Jesus. Because it has such deep roots, it can endure even in the face of the world’s hostility.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

The gospel readings these mornings are taken from what has come to be called the Last Supper Discourse in John’s gospel. On the night before his passion and death Jesus is depicted as speaking at length to his disciples who are distressed at the prospect of Jesus leaving them. In this morning’s gospel reading Jesus declares to them, ‘if you loved me you would have been glad to know that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I’. Jesus is saying to his disciples that if they really loved him they would not try to hold onto him; they would let him go to the Father so that he can be present to them and to all disciples of every generation in a new, in and through the coming of the Holy Spirit. Genuine love for someone often means not holding on to them but letting them go to a life that is fuller for them and, ultimately, fuller for us too. This is the kind of love that Jesus is calling for from his disciples, a non-possessive love that surrenders to what God wants for him and for them. Genuine love delights in what is best for the other, even though that may be entail a painful letting go for us.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

In this morning’s first reading we are told that as Paul and Barnabas made their way back through the churches they had founded, ‘they put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith’. We all need encouragement, especially with regard to our faith and our relationship with the Lord. We need to keep putting fresh heart into each other, encouraging each other to persevere in the faith. That is what we find Jesus doing in the gospel reading. It is the night of the last supper; the disciples are feeling discouraged. Jesus says to them, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid’. He offers them the gift of his peace, a ‘peace the world cannot give’. He assures them that although he is leaving them, he will come back to them again in a very short while, through the Holy Spirit. He is actively engaged in putting fresh heart into the disciples. We can encourage each other, but the Lord himself is the great encourager. If we turn to him in confident prayer, he will help us to persevere in the faith.

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(v) Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter

In the gospel reading this morning, Jesus promises the gift of peace to his followers. He immediately goes on to contrast the peace he gives with the peace the world gives. In the time Jesus lived and in the time John’s gospel was written, the Pax Romana, the Roman peace, was being heralded and praised throughout the empire. This peace that Rome brought was the fruit of conquest and oppression. This peace which the world of the time gave is not the peace that Jesus gives. The Lord’s peace is not the fruit of conquest, but is what Paul would call the fruit of the Spirit. It is the peace which comes to those whose lives are led by the Spirit and shaped by the Spirit. The primary fruit of the Spirit is love. Love and peace are dimensions of the one fruit of the Spirit. When we love with the Lord’s love then we will know his peace and we will become channels of that peace to others.

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(vi) Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

The description of the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in this morning’s first reading is striking. Visiting churches that were struggling in a pagan world, we are told that ‘they put fresh heart into the disciples, encouraging them to persevere in the faith’. Jesus is described as doing something similar in the gospel reading. He turns to his disciples who are distressed at the prospect of his immanent departure, or death, and he says to them, ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid’. There is a time when, as disciples, we need to be challenged, but there is also a time when, as disciples, we need to be encouraged. Jesus and Paul knew how to give encouragement when encouragement was needed. The risen Lord continues his work of giving encouragement to disciples today. Getting discouraged about how we are doing as disciples of the Lord can be a very life-draining business; it can drag us down. Such discouragement does not come from the Lord. The Lord is much more about putting fresh heart into us, what the gospel reading calls a ‘peace the world cannot give’. Every so often when we are feeling somewhat discouraged about ourselves, and how we are doing, it can be good to turn to the Lord and to invite him to put fresh heart into us so that we can be joyful and energetic in the living of our faith. The Lord puts fresh heart into us through the Holy Spirit. That is why one of the names given to the Holy Spirit is ‘Comforter’/‘Consoler’ and why in that lovely prayer we can turn to the Holy Spirit and pray, ‘Heal our wounds, our strength renew; On our dryness pour thy dew’.

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(vii) Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

Many of us find departures difficulty, especially when the person departing from us is significant for us in some way. The words Jesus speaks in this morning’s gospel reading are set by the evangelist within the context of the evening before Jesus was crucified. Jesus is about to leave his disciples. Yet, in leaving them he also assures them that he is not abandoning them. He will in fact come back to them. That is the promise of Jesus to the disciples in the gospel reading we have just heard, ‘I am going away and I shall return’. Jesus returned when he rose from the dead; having returned, he remained present to them through the Holy Spirit. The season of Easter, which runs from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, celebrates the return of the Lord, his rising from the dead and his continuing presence among us through the Holy Spirit. It is the risen Lord’s presence to us that is the source of the peace, which Jesus speaks about at the beginning of our gospel reading, a sharing in his own peace. Even in the midst of difficulty, struggle, loss and failure, the risen Lord’s presence to us can give us a peace that the world cannot give us.

And/Or

(viii) Tuesday, Fifth Week of Easter

In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus is portrayed as speaking on the night of the last supper, the night before he was crucified. His disciples are understandably troubled and fearful. Jesus has been telling them that he is going away. His death will take him from them. Yet, Jesus wants to reassure them that his leaving them, through death, is actually to their advantage. Yes, it is a great tragedy, but God is going to bring something wonderful out of this human tragedy. In and through his death, Jesus will give them the gift of peace, a peace the world cannot give, a peace that is deeper than any peace that those who are in power in the world can bring. The peace Jesus brings is peace with God, a reconciled relationship with God, and this will come to pass precisely through his leaving them, through his death. Jesus says that even though the prince of this world is on his way, namely, Satan who has taken hold of Judas and others, what is about to unfold will reveal Jesus’ love for his heavenly Father, and his Father’s love for Jesus and the world. These are powerful, life-giving words that Jesus speaks to his disciples in their distress and anxiety. It is said of Paul and Barnabas in the first reading that they put fresh heart into the disciples. What Jesus does for his disciples at the Last Supper, Paul and Barnabas do for later disciples. It is what we are all asked to do, as disciples of Jesus. By what we say and do, we are called to put fresh heart into one another, to encourage one another. We are to be messengers of the Lord’s refreshing, encouraging presence. If that is to happen, we ourselves need to listen to and absorb into ourselves the Lord’s life-giving words, those same words we have just heard in our gospel reading this morning.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

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