“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you…Do not let
your hearts be troubled or afraid.” (John 14:27)
Last weekend I was in the Washington, DC area for a wedding,
and I spent my first night there on the campus of Catholic University. The next morning I had to drive to southern
Virginia for the actual wedding, but before leaving I wanted to pay a visit to
the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that was a
block away from the dorm I stayed at. I
walked into this beautiful church to pray to the patroness of our parish, but
half the sanctuary was blocked off for renovations. As if guided by the very hand of God, I gravitated
to a side chapel with a beautiful image of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the
patroness of Poland: the very same chapel that St. John Paul II had prayed in
years before. I thought to myself, “If
it’s good enough for a pope and saint then it’s good enough for me.” There was no one in the chapel. I lit a candle for the couple I was about to
marry and for the intentions of my parishioners, and then I moved to the
kneeler at the base of the altar and knelt before Our Lady. I must confess that as soon as I feel to my
knees, every problem, every worry, every bit of stress, any cross that I had
been carrying simply disappeared. I felt
as if I was an infant being held and consoled by my mother, except this time it
was the Mother of God. So many problems
and worries I had been carrying, so much stress and worries about things to
come, but in that beautiful moment, they were all gone. It was just Mary and I praying to her Son
together: a moment of absolute peace.
Peace is at the heart of today’s gospel because Jesus wants
us to experience divine peace. It is so
elusive, so difficult to keep, yet we yearn for it, search for it, and hunger
and thirst for it. Yes I had to travel
to our nation’s capital to find this peace and be reminded that in my prayer
life, I have to break out of monotony and routine especially when it comes to the
spiritual life. A friend of mine posted
a beautiful quote last week that said: “Make it a routine to break the
monotony.” This is a variation of
something a spiritual director once told me: “Beware of routine in the
spiritual life.” So we need to find
those moments, those places, and yes, even those people that bring us peace.
I was telling this story of my experience in the Basilica to
a brother priest this week, and he reminded me of the importance of us talking
to Mary in our prayer life. Beyond the
rosary and devotions, this past week since returning, I have found great peace
kneeling before the image of the Immaculate Conception to the left of our main
altar as I have kneeling before the tabernacle.
Today we begin the month of Mary and we are called to rekindle this
friendship we have with our Blessed Mother who is the Queen of Peace. And when we find that peace that Jesus and
his Mother are offering, we are called to share it, to plant it, to sow it and
to hold on to it. Jesus reminds us in
the gospel that we will not find this peace out in the world. However, we will find it here in his house
dedicated to his Mother where we come to worship every Sunday, where we come to
find that peace that we may have lost during the week, where we come to feel
that divine embrace that reminds us that we are loved, forgiven, protected, and
saved. “Peace I leave you; my peace I
give you.”
