Deepertruth: Eucharistic Miracle and True Peace in the World

Before the birth of Christ, Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, was filled with the Holy Spirit to prophesy the Benedictus, which he concluded with the promise to us that “the rising Sun will visit us, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

When Christ was born at Bethlehem, the angels sang the first Gloria in excelsis with the promise again of “peace to men of good will.”

During His public life, when Christ forgave sinners and healed the sick., He told them to go in peace.

Before His passion, when the Savior wept over Jerusalem, He was overcome with sorrow because its inhabitants did not heed “the things that are to your peace.” And at the Last Supper, Jesus told the disciples (and through them He was telling us what we are so prone to forget)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me.”

“Peace I bequeath to you, my peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid” (John 14:27).

Then, on the evening of His resurrection from the dead, Christ’s first word to the frightened apostles was the command, “Peace be with you,” which He repeated: “Peace be with you.”

True to the spirit of the Master, the apostles, especially St. Paul, never tired of telling the faithful to be at peace. And finally, in the opening verse of the last book of the Bible, John pronounces the invocation, “Grace and peace to you from Him who is, who was, and who is to come,” that is, from Jesus Christ.