Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter

Today's Mass Readings

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to us, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” This peace that Christ gives us is larger and stronger than the world and the peace that the world can give. This is because Christ’s peace rest on God’s omnipotent power. And so, we can know this peace even within the greatest sorrows and difficulties that life can throw at us, once we fully trust God. We can see this peace in action in the lives of many of the saints. St. Maximilian Kolbe, for example, was able to sing with the men who were being put to death with him, and to lift their spirits and to give them courage in the face of coming death. This is because he trusted God, and knew the peace of Christ in his heart.

Fr. Walter Ciszek also, when he was sent by his superiors on mission in the Soviet Union, thought he had failed when he was arrested and sent to Siberia. Instead, he found himself ministering to many other people who were also suffering in the Soviet gulag, until God sent him home after twenty or so years. And Fr. Ciszek found peace and joy in that.
We might say, “I could never do that, they were saints,” but probably they felt the same before they found themselves in those situations. And when we read their lives we see that it wasn’t easy for them either. But they stuck it out and learned to trust God. And we can do the same.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB