(Jn 14:27-31)

The Semitic peoples wished each other Peace in their meetings and commemoration. The traditional wish for peace was also Greek.

However, in the Gospel this nod, wish, or leave-taking is assumed and reinterpreted in order to the imperative of the Apostolic Announcement.

The Shalôm of Christ is a kind of emancipation from the humiliations of religion, and from the rejections suffered in earthly ministry.

It becomes a distinctive word, designating the ownership of the divine messianic Presence, outside and within us.

An epiphanic emblem, it conveys to each person the personal, reserved happiness of divine favour, for the growth of all.

Not a deserved reward for labours, nor an omen, but a personal, non-conditional Gift.

Free proposal, of the now, which becomes surplus to the journey. Cosmic and acutely intimate passage.

Fullness of being and boundless totality, of Life, which marks us - but in the sense of exceeding expectations.

Worldly and religious prosperity [in the ancient sense] are similar: opulence that is not born of faith-love.

It looks like a reward for services rendered, or blackmail for those expected. A deadly power.

A kind of bliss at mercy and under 'righteous purpose'.

With ambiguous features at all levels of relationship: with God, the community, the You and even the self.

It is not re-creative confrontation with the Cross, which leaps up.

The "I go and come to you" (v.28) is a Semitic endiad: two statements joined together, referring to the same [generative, vital] event of death and complete life, which creates a new situation.

The expression-event is not such as to make itself subject to conditions.

The arc of the Lord's earthly ministry comes to an end; a covenant is made.

Time of widespread Word and action, with overall results of new fathers and mothers, new Creation.

In short, the Peace of Jesus is not a state, but a relationship.

Full realisation of the human - a condition no longer balanced, according to convention.

Rather, fulfilment recalibrated to the measure of Christ in Person, in the Hour of Birth.

On Jesus' lips, 'Shalôm' [excellence and surpassing of ancient blessings] takes on the features of its proper, messianic meaning.

Presence of 'anointing'. Discription of the Gospels and essential announcement (cf. Lk 10:5).

Broadness of well-being: without this precious reading code the Word of the Lord remains incomprehensible, and the Mission to which we are sent becomes prey to obsessions, the most sloppy, inauthentic ones.

In the territories of the empire, the Pax Romana had triumphalist traits - it was synonymous with violence, competition, repression of rebels.

As an armed truce, it was the guarantor of a prosperous economy, but secured in its social dimension only by inequalities, especially by a vast slave base.

The Peace that Jesus introduces is not just any wish, of normal expected improvements; rather, the transmission of his own Person.

Such propensity, affair and priceless Friendship stimulates us to a complete rearrangement, reconfiguration, reorganisation of the whole of life.

And it often throws it off, in order to spurn the quietism of circumstance.

In our language, we would perhaps speak of Happiness and new order and public order.

Being the secret desire of each one, no difficulty can extinguish its promise and power of fulfilment (v.30).

Shalôm is fullness of saved existence, "success" in our journey of flourishing through a thousand undertakings.

Shalôm is perfection and complete joy, fulfilment of desires.

Victory of the Covenant between God and the people. Endless attunement and communion between the innate impulse of our particular essence and the fulfilment of our hopes.

Success of the Covenant between soul drive and evolutionary achievements experienced in real life.

Shalôm [full realisation of humanity rediscovering itself] indicates vital and fulfilled totality of every aspiration.

Quality of new relationships arising from it: the supreme good of a Presence in action. Entrusted to us.

To internalise and live the message:

Is your Peace a furrow, an unmistakable path, an echo of Christ, or empty trust - an exemption from struggle?

And your witness to establish God on earth in what is it competitive, provocative, renewed, living?

Peace and Signs. Citadels and ideology of power

(Lk 19:41-44)

We like to be in the wake of fashion or opportunism, but to reject the Lord's Call is a great responsibility.

One must recognise His Visitation, in Presence, in the inspiration that emerges.

And scrutinise the signs, seize the moments of grace instead of closing in stubbornly; do not turn your back.

All this changes life at the root - it leads to the heart of history.

Jesus wants to storm the closed gates of every citadel; first of all of the hardest bone: Jerusalem, the holy city.The 'eternal' territory is less capable of accepting the Lord's proposals - even those flaunted to others but lived out in their own right with aberrant behaviour here and there (forcing repeated appeals).

There, the extremists of ancient or super-modern convenience remain all bent on guarding and covering interests, privileges, habits, comforts.

A situation that drags the problems themselves - which gradually become chronic.

Not infrequently, the astute leaders remain seated and closed in the defence of the world that sees only itself, in the perfect greed of every vain thing.

So much for the ferment of conversion, the engine of society, the seed of new life!

Result: the much flaunted Truth often remains hostage to the most blatant injustices, which cheerfully consume the worst betrayals in daily life.

Jesus, too, was aware of the same situation, which produced degradation and dehumanisation.

Sometimes, in fact, the search for the divine and human tension are rendered vain, due to an exclusive, snobbish or sectarian official world - that of the sacred - that seems to be under the sign of a completely different 'divinity'.

On the part of the 'directors', the choice of an ideology of power feeds on illusions.

It leads to hard proselytism, but it leads the whole people - harassed, despised, marginalised - to disaster.

By blurring the gaze, it does not allow one to rid oneself of the most insidious idols that disfigure existence and the mind.

In this way, the dirigiste, superficial and violent outlook confuses and sidetracks the path to Shalôm.

It is impossible to realise the Visitation of God, in the perennial city of ancient religiosity or elitist, disembodied ideology.

At one time, there were trenches, killings and destruction of walls and houses by Nebuchadnezzar; then the Roman one in 70, to which the text alludes more directly.

But the grim forecast extends, and perhaps the image of the pile of ruins concerns us. Historical background, ecclesial and pastoral meditation.

Not infrequently the competent authority has unfortunately continued to condemn Jesus-Peace as an evildoer to be expelled.

But in filigree, Christ today stands out in the position of King, reluctantly pronouncing a final sentence.

Perhaps he even does so on his intimates, when they indulge in compromise, ideal degradation, venal corruption [idol worship].

Where salvation is prepared, offered and re-proposed so intensely but in vain, the rejection becomes more painful - so for us and for this passionate, moving, almost heartbroken Son.

Yet the class of the chosen and exclusive still chooses to fall and ruin, thereby self-destructing.

Receiving in return only the worldly fodder of a title to pin down.

And in the same 'spirit of permanence', rejecting the servant Messiah.

Misrecognising even in time the good work of its authentic witnesses.

Therefore, the City of cities - the great religious centre - will continue to lose its special character as a saving sign.

There will be a fulfilment nevertheless, but the anticipation is realised now.

So: are we with the Redeemer [resistance to oppression and prophetic activity without acquiescence] or with Jerusalem [deviations covered by docility, friendship of the ruler, notoriety, monetary rewards]?

Today too is a time of the Master's visit, who knocks and asks permission to enter, to open the seals of the great questions of history and life.

The warning is global, communal, and personal; again with tears of father, mother and son.

An appeal that is still in the making - for the current cultural tendency towards nothingness, surrender and the ephemeral.

The encyclical Fratelli Tutti denounces precisely the regress of an extravagant world that - with a shrunken sense of the 'here and now' - seems to have learnt little from the tragedies of the 20th century, to the point of rekindling anachronistic conflicts (nn.11.13).

The Father has reserved an alternative kingdom for the Church, and where it tries to occupy the place of others, it only ends up living off the handouts of the magazine, and making its closest children stay.

Better not to ruin love. Standing up for oneself is a mask of dwarfs, not a virtue of the strong - nor of family members.

But by also noticing the places of rupture, and catching up with the social pace, it is with new evangelical acumen that we will be able to make the God-for-all really work and live, rather than grieve over us.

This is best done from his People: from the soul of his Fraternities of silent lambs, engaged not in managing positions, but in the sine glossa craft of real life.

To internalise and live the message:

What do you consider to be hidden from your eyes, but previously announced - and crying bitterly?

With what orientation are you willing to live in the 'craft of Peace', even family or social, putting aside enmities and the ephemeral [cf. FT nn. 57. 100. 127. 176. 192. 197. 216-217. 225-236. 240-243. 254-262. 271-272. 278-285]?Peace, in Truth

11. In the face of the dangers that humanity is experiencing in our times, it is the task of all Catholics to intensify, in every part of the world, the proclamation and witness of the 'Gospel of peace', proclaiming that the recognition of the full truth of God is a prior and indispensable condition for the consolidation of the truth of peace. God is Love that saves, a loving Father who desires to see his children recognise each other as brothers and sisters, responsibly striving to place their different talents at the service of the common good of the human family. God is the inexhaustible source of hope that gives meaning to personal and collective life. God, God alone, makes every work of good and peace effective. History has amply demonstrated that waging war against God to eradicate him from human hearts leads a fearful and impoverished humanity towards choices that have no future. This must spur believers in Christ to become convincing witnesses of the God who is inseparably truth and love, placing themselves at the service of peace, in broad collaboration ecumenically and with other religions, as well as with all people of good will.

[Pope Benedict, Message for the XXXIX World Day of Peace, 2006].