As Christians it can be easy to identify peace as a goal and something to pray for. It is easy to open to the beatitudes and read “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). It is easy to hear the Priest at Mass quote Jesus saying, “Peace I leave you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” (John 14:27). However, in order to follow in the steps of our Lord, we must be able to hear the difficult verses and be able to make sense of them. So instead of discussing the pleasant and easy verses above, it is more proper to begin with Matthew 10:34-36, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword…. For I have come to set a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”. As Christians, how do we reconcile these verses? How do we reconcile that last verse with when Jesus tells Peter “Put your sword back into its sheath, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword”?

The truth is that Jesus clearly distinguishes between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. Consider how the final temptation that the Devil offers the Son of God is to reign over all the kingdoms of this world (Matt 4:9). As read above, Jesus provides the peace of the Kingdom of God only. The peace of the Kingdom of God is eternal and rooted in love and joy. The peace of this world is temporary and rooted in fear. If a country declares peace with another it is usually out of fear that the country’s weapons are superior and would win in a war. However, when a Christian comes to love another as a sister, and realizes that the two are forever united daughters of Christ, then this is an eternal peace fit for the Kingdom of God. As Jesus made clear, the Kingdom of God is not of this world, but it can be found in this world (John 17).

The peace of the Gospel is a threat to worldly power. The more that the Kingdom of God spreads, the less room there is for oppressive worldly empires, for “you can not serve two

masters. You will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other” (Matthew 6:24). This is why Jesus was crucified because there was a large threat to the worldly powers of the Roman empire and also the religious leaders of the Temple. For the Christian, everything must lead to the Cross, and therefore to the resurrection. Jesus knew that His peace would be opposed by the Earthly powers and therefore bring swords to arrest Him and crucify Him. Jesus likewise knew that some daughters would follow him and choose His peace. Some mothers would cling on to their worldly possessions instead, inevitably leading to a mother being set against her daughter. This does not mean a mother is automatically pinned against her daughter. If both choose worldly affairs over the Kingdom of God, then they will experience a false, worldly, and temporary peace. If both choose the Kingdom of God then they will enjoy an eternal, joyful, and true peace. However, Jesus understands there will be some division and tension because a few will follow His path, and many unfortunately will not.

Remember, for the Christian, all must lead to the Cross. Therefore the litmus test of whether or not the Christian is experiencing the peace of Christ is whether there is daily crucifixion or not. If the Christian is joyfully being persecuted by the earthly powers, then that can be a good sign that she is on the path of Jesus. As the beatitude notes, peacemakers become children of God because they deny being children of earthly tyrants.

However, one can be persecuted by the government or Church leaders and not be a follower of Christ. Surely, the persecution must be because the person lived their life with the same interior peace that Christ did. It is the interior peace of Christ that allowed Him to take the actions that He did. Jesus had to be at complete interior peace in order to flip the tables in the Temple righteously without sin. Jesus often went up the Mountain to pray in order to foster this peace. Today’s Christian must also find the time to pray in solitude and silence. Peace is impossible to obtain without prayer and arduous training.

Finally, it is understandable for the reader at this point to be asking “Why? Why live a life of persecution? Why risk loss of a job, or jail time, or martyrdom? Why risk my daughter being set against me?”. The answer is that the Crucifixion leads to the Resurrection. There is no Easter Sunday without Good Friday. We do what we do with the knowledge of the resurrection. This resurrection leads us to sitting with our Creator in a Heaven that is indescribable. It is only when we enter the Kingdom of God, that we will truly experience the eternal peace that we have been working so hard towards. If we enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus will call us His children, for we have been the peacemakers on Earth. He will say to us face to face “My peace I give you”. This will be the same peace that was found in the Garden of Eden before the first sin. This will be the same peace of Mary holding the infant Jesus in the manger. Mary understood there was no peace and joy of life without the pain of being in labor. It will be a peace greater than walking through a meadow in the beginning of spring. However, there are no spring flowers without the death of seeds in the fall. Likewise, there is no resurrection without the Cross.

My prayer is that you do not confuse peace with tranquility, calmness, or security. I pray that you do not confuse a false, worldly peace with the true peace of the Kingdom above. I pray that you can avoid all confusion by following the example of Christ, by living a life full of love and prayer which creates an interior peace that then reflects out through outwards actions of peace.