by Fr. John Dear, S.J.
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Easter invites us to welcome the risen Christ’s resurrection gift of peace with all our hearts.
“My peace I give you; my peace I leave with you,” the nonviolent Jesus told his friends the night before he was executed. By all accounts, when he appeared to them that Sunday, he said to them over and over again, “Peace be with you.” He comes back and shares his peace with us. He offers it to us as a gift. He wants us to live in his peace. Indeed, he lives on in us when we welcome his peace and make it real within and around us.
Easter is the time to welcome this great gift of Christ’s peace with all our hearts. As Easter people, we take that gift of peace seriously, and make it part of our lives, and do what we can to share that resurrection gift with others, even the whole world.
But as we look around at our hearts, our lives and our world, one wonders if anyone is interested in accepting that resurrection gift of peace.…
John, thank you so much for all of this and especially for my now knowing that Bob Lax is still in Patmos. I last saw him in the early 80’s at the Merton/Maritain Conference in Louisville, Ky. He had a sister living in Olean, N.Y. and we visited her then when we were home in Bradford, Pa.
Again, the Jesuits ‘rise to the occasion.’ My Eastering is followed with a 3-day workshop with Diarmuid O’Murcho. Hmmm!