It is interesting as we all are marching to find Peace. Our history, our choices, finally, all our lives march in the direction of this quest. We do not need to go very far in order to realize that the times are not rare that we suffer a type of division and interior war. That said: we encounter a dinner in the Gospel of John that if we are attentive to the details, reveals much of this state that sooner or later we encounter.

In this end of the day we were also united in the Cenacle, the doors were closed for great was the fear. We were consoled through the appearances of the Good Teacher who has resurrected, still, so He revealed an interior war, for the hearts were visited through anxiety and through fear—lacking peace, the peace of the heart. And it was in its absence that Jesus came and said to them: “Peace be with you!” (John 20:19b) Here enters the core of our reflection, which incidentally, some of us at the beginning can have asked ourselves what Peace has in common with Pentecost, the pouring out of the Holy Spirit over the Church. It is that what was lacking to the disciples was peace, repeat the peace of the heart.

I like always to explore the universe of words. And etymologically, for example, the deeper significance of peace known also as Shalom, is not the absence of war or violence as we believe. In Hebrew, the word SHALOM, translated for us as peace, means to be whole, complete, undivided. This is great and revealed, because beginning from this understanding, we conclude that many of us are not in peace, because we are not whole. For we reach to peace, peace in our spaces, in our heart, in our family, in our community and vocation, it is needed therefore, that each one may be whole.

When Jesus said, “Peace be with you!” The Sacred Author details that the happiness is resurrected in the life of those disciples. They appear to understand well the desire of the Good Teacher translated as “May you be whole! May you be whole in all things” It is fascinating, my people, hew out the road of wholeness because it is that which prepares us for the mission. “I say to you again: Peace be with you! As the Father sends me, so also I send you.” (John 21:21). There is a beauty hidden in this verse, that reveals to us that it is not possible to live well that which God has lovingly entrusted in us, if we are anxious, without peace in the heart, in some way afflicted or divided. The law for living well a vocation may be whatever it is to be whole, to be whole completely in it.

This in the context of the cenacle we encounter the other rich detail “After these words He breathed on them saying to them: Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John21:22). It is in the interior of our heart that God pours the gift of his love (john 21:21) offering us a type of condition that we may live well in order that he may call us. The road to PENTECOST we need to be whole to reach the Gift of Love. In Fact, when we put order ourselves in the small to great gestures we are whole. Let us be whole, Let us live in peace and Love will come to help us.

Your Brother,

Jerônimo Lauricio

Jerónimo Lauricio writes from Brazil.

Translated from Portuguese.