VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A peace that can be purchased can provide only a false sense of security that will not last in moments of trial and suffering, Pope Francis said during his early morning Mass.
“The world teaches us a path of peace with anesthesia; it anesthetizes us to not see another reality of life: the cross,” he said May 16. On the other hand, “the peace that Jesus gives is a gift; it is a gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The pope reflected on the day’s Gospel reading (Jn. 14:27-31) in which Jesus promises his peace to his disciples.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid,” Jesus said.
This peace, the pope said, “goes forward amid tribulations” and is “not a sort of stoicism like that of a fakir. No, it is another thing.”
“God’s peace is a real peace that moves along with the reality of life, that does not deny life,” he said. It says, “Life is like this: there is suffering, there are those who are sick, there are so many bad things, there are wars, but that peace from within — which is a gift — is not lost but goes forward carrying the cross and suffering.”
On their own, he said, people are able to create only a peace “that is reduced to tranquility” and withers away at the first sign of trouble.
“A peace without the cross is not Jesus’ peace: It is a peace that can be bought. We can make it ourselves, but it isn’t lasting; it ends,” the pope said.
Citing St. Augustine’s work, “The City of God,” Pope Francis said that “the life of a Christian is a path between the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God” and that Christians “must enter the kingdom of God through many tribulations.”
“May the Lord help us to truly understand this peace that he gives us with the Holy Spirit,” the pope said.
