Patrick Comerford
Easter is a 50-day season, beginning on Easter Day (20 April 2025) and continuing until the Day of Pentecost (8 June 2025), or Whit Sunday. This week began with the Fifth Sunday of Easter (Easter V, 18 May 2025), known in the Orthodox Church as the Sunday of the Samaritan Woman.
The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today celebrates Alcuin of York (804), Deacon, Abbot of Tours. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and Post-Communion prayer of the day.
John 14: 27-31 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 27 ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.’
Today’s Reflection:
Today’s short Gospel reading provided in the Lectionary at the Eucharist (John 14: 27-31) continues our readings from the ‘Farewell Discourse’ in Saint John’s Gospel.
Christ’s farewell to the disciples includes a gift of peace. The opening word in this section is εἰρήνη (eirēnē), ‘Peace’: ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you’ (verse 27).
‘Peace!’ (שָׁלוֹם, Shalom) is the normal greeting and farewell in Hebrew, ‘Hello’, ‘Goodbye’. Jesus uses this word again and again when he appears to his disciples after the Resurrection: Εἰρήνη ὑμῖν, Peace be with you (John 20: 19, 21, 26).
It can refer to either peace between two entities – especially between a person and God or between two countries – or to the well-being, welfare or safety of an individual or a group of individuals. The word shalom is also found in many other expressions and names. There are similar words in Arabic, Maltese, Neo-Aramaic dialects, and Ethiopian Semitic languages, from the Proto-Semitic root Š-L-M.
Originally it referred to soundness of body, but it came to signify perfect happiness and the liberation which the Messiah was expected to bring. This is the very wholeness which is the aim of Jesus’ mission.
But it is not the peace as the ‘world’ understands it. Peace for Jesus is not simply the absence of violence; it is something much more positive, much deeper. Paradoxically, it can exist side by side with times of great turmoil. It is something internal, not external. It comes from an inner sense of security, of a conviction that God is with us and in us and that we are in the right place. It is something which not even the threat of death can take away.
It is something that the going away of Jesus cannot remove. Jesus tells his disciples: ‘If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father …’ (verse 28).
It is always a sign of love when our first priority is the well-being of the other person. He says: ‘the Father is greater than I’ (verse 28).
This is in the sense that as Father, he has a kind of priority and is the ultimate source of all that is, though the Son does share all that with the Father and the Spirit. The full divine glory of the Son in Jesus is also veiled behind his humanity for the time being, but after the Cross he will pass into the full glory of the Father.
It is obvious that Jesus’ place is with his Father. His disciples, if they love him, will know that and not get in his way. Of course, as Jesus points out, it is also in the disciples’ own interest that Jesus go away, for only then will the Spirit come down on all of them.
The end is near, ‘for the ruler of this world is coming’ (verse 30).
But they are not to worry. The powers of evil are limited in what they can do, and all that happens to Jesus is simply a manifestation of his great love for his Father and his desire to fulfil his Father’s wishes, communicating to the world the tremendous love of the Father for each one of us.
‘Peace be with you’ were the first words in Pope Leo XIV’s first address from the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica earlier this month [8 May 2025], when he said:
‘Peace be with you. Dearest brothers and sisters, this was the first greeting of the risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for the flock of God. I, too, would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families and all people, wherever they are; and all the peoples, and all the earth: Peace be with you.
‘This is the peace of the Risen Christ, a disarming and humble and preserving peace. It comes from God. God, who loves all of us, without any limits or conditions. Let us keep in our ears the weak but always brave voice of Pope Francis, who blessed Rome – the Pope who blessed Rome and the world that day on the morning of Easter.
‘Allow me to continue that same blessing. God loves us, all of us, evil will not prevail. We are all in the hands of God. Without fear, united, hand in hand with God and among ourselves, we will go forward. We are disciples of Christ, Christ goes before us, and the world needs his light. Humanity needs him like a bridge to reach God and his love. You help us to build bridges with dialogue and encounter so we can all be one people always in peace.’
Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 20 May 2025):
‘That We May Live Together: A Reflection from the Emerging Leaders Academy’ is the theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church’, the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel). This theme was introduced on Sunday with a programme update from Annsli Kabekabe of the Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (Tuesday 20 May 2025) invites us to pray:
Dear God, we thank you today for the leaders who provide 1-1 mentorship to the ELA participants. We praise you for their wisdom, care and compassion to nurture young leaders.
The Collect:
God of wisdom, eternal light,
who shone in the heart of your servant Alcuin,
revealing to him your power and pity:
scatter the darkness of our ignorance
that, with all our heart and mind and strength,
we may seek your face
and be brought with all your saints
to your holy presence;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Merciful God,
who gave such grace to your servant Alcuin
that he served you with singleness of heart
and loved you above all things:
help us, whose communion with you
has been renewed in this sacrament,
to forsake all that holds us back from following Christ
and to grow into his likeness from glory to glory;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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