How can you “be at peace” in difficult circumstances? A sense of inner peace is right up there with joy and love when it comes to what many discerning people label as “happiness.” We wonder at people who face spreading cancer, loss of job, or rejection by family or community with a certain stable spirit. “I am at peace,” they say, and they have a peaceful air about them. We say of such people, “I want some of that.”
How do we get such peace? It is a gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Today’s readings would make the case that one way to have such peace is to speak (or otherwise express) one’s “piece” (part) of building the Kingdom of God. Find your place and live it.
With that point in mind, let’s look at the context of the readings.
The first reading continues the story from yesterday. The Apostles were jailed and released miraculously in the middle of the night. Boldly they went back to teach in the temple area the next morning. In today’s reading the Apostles are summoned back in front of the Sanhedrin. They are confronted, “We gave you strict orders, did we not, to stop teaching in that name. Yet you have filled all of Jerusalem with your teaching…”
Their response? “We must obey God rather than men. The God of our ancestors raised Jesus, though you had him killed by hanging on a tree.”
As I read their words, I have a sense they spoke them with some exuberance, as well as with tranquility. “We are witnesses of these things, as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.”
Those were fighting words for the Sanhedrin. “When they heard this, they became infuriated and wanted to put them to death.”
Tomorrow we find out the rest of the story. Peter and the other Apostles spoke their part today. We will see tomorrow what happens.
Understanding the context makes the Gospel reading more meaningful, too. Who do you think is talking here?
It is John the Baptist. His disciples have just come to him, telling him that Jesus and his disciples are now baptizing and teaching. What does John have to say about that? He speaks the famous words, “He must increase and I must decrease.” Then he goes on with today’s reading. The “one who comes from above” is Jesus. The “one who comes from the earth” is John. John recognizes that his job in building the Kingdom is almost done. “For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.”
This is followed by an interesting sentence, “He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.” My understanding of that sentence is that John recognizes that both he and Jesus are called by the Father and have gifts of the Spirit. Yet “the Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.”
The Holy Spirit helps John see his role is now to let go. He says in recognition, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Song will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.”
I don’t picture John saying that with exuberance, but I do picture him saying it with peace. His ability to say it is as much a gift of God as his earlier preaching.
He had done his part in building the Kingdom. He had spoken his piece, his part. He had also spoken his peace.
Perhaps it is because I am in the middle of a major transition in my life, but I am fascinated by the sense of peace that I hear in both Peter’s words and those of John the Baptist, even though there must have been distressed feelings, too.
They knew their place in God’s plan. They did what the Holy Spirit told them to do. What the results of that would be was not their concern.
Their concern was to do their part.
They were a piece in the puzzle, a brick in the building of the Kingdom of God.
I am praying for more gifts of the Holy Spirit. I want to be at peace with my piece in building the Kingdom.
The end of May I will stop being an administrator of a community non-profit organization. One way or another I have had that role since 1984.
My place in building the Kingdom of God is shifting. I don’t know exactly what it will look like now. I don’t think I’ll be a martyr like John the Baptist and the Apostles.
But I’m pretty sure “He must increase and I must decrease.” I will have both the freedom and the lack of say-so of a volunteer.
I am praying for the freedom of humility, to not want to be esteemed, consulted, praised, or seen as good.
I see the value in giving those things up. It would give me the freedom that Peter, the other Apostles, and John the Baptist had. I would be less likely to get in God’s way as he gives me a new piece of building the Kingdom.
Some words that Pope Francis spoke when he was in New York City in 2015 help me put finding and living my place now in the Kingdom in perspective:
“The true value of our apostolate is measured by the value it has in God’s eyes. To see and evaluate things from God’s perspective calls for constant conversion in the days and years of our vocation and, need I say, it calls for great humility. The cross shows us a different way of measuring success. Ours it is to plant the seeds; God sees to the fruits of our labors. And if at times our efforts and works seem to fail and produce no fruit, we need to remember that we are followers of Jesus…and his life, humanly speaking, ended in failure, in the failure of the cross.”
Perhaps they will speak to you today, too.
The value of the work that John the Baptist did was that he inspired many in Israel to repent and live holier lives. In doing so, he was the final step for the coming of the Messiah. He was the last great prophet of Israel and the bridge to the emerging Kingdom of God. He was successful—though it probably didn’t feel like success when he sat in Herod’s prison.
The value of the work Peter and the other Apostles did at this point in early church history was that they planted the first Christian community in Jerusalem—and they aroused the anger of Jewish leadership which led to the first round of persecution…which led to the first circle of outreach toward “the ends of the earth.” That probably didn’t feel like success at the time either.
So they needed God’s peace to guide them.
How much did John the Baptist and the Apostles understand their piece in forming the Kingdom?
How much do you understand your role right now?
I must admit my piece, my place, is moving to unclear. That has my emotions going. So I must pray that God will lead me and guide me sufficiently that I can follow faith to do my part when path or success is unclear.
Prayer:
“Lord, help me to do my piece. Help me to know I am doing that by giving me your peace. Then, Lord, give me gifts of perseverance and humility until my work is done.”
