God's peace
Presided by Msgr. Simas; Sermon : Deacon Benjamin Lai

In today's gospel reading, Jesus says peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, but do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. Peace is one of 12 fruits of the Holy Spirit and the others are: charity, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity. Not to be confused with the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit which enable us to bear this fruit. Peace is the first thing that Jesus gave to the disciples after his resurrection. when he came into the locked upper room, and then Jesus breathed on them and said "receive the holy spirit". In today's gospel reading, Jesus is telling the disciples that, and also telling all of us that peace in our lives can only be accomplished through abiding in God's word and his love. everything that we do in every thought and feeling that comes in our mind and in our heart, we need to redirect them and line our will to conform to the will of the father. Aside from Jesus we can accomplish nothing, and we definitely will not have that lasting peace that Jesus speaks about and promises to all of us.

Too often, we pray and seek the good in this world. We often seek the exterior good so that we don't have to endure the interior hardship. All too often, our interior peace is too dependent on the outer things that happen in our lives. And all too often we pray for exterior good so that it will not disturb our inner peace. Jesus is turning all of our understanding in life upside down, and inside out. Our inner peace and true peace can only be accomplished by remaining in Christ. Our will and our pride would tell us otherwise that you can do this alone, but in reality, we cannot do this alone, and we need to advocate the Holy Spirit to teach everything that we need and to remind us of all that Jesus told us. Jesus promises that he will never leave us; he is telling his disciples before his crucifixion that he must endure this suffering and death in order to bring the greater good for the world. his disciples did not understand what Jesus meant. And in the moment of his death, it seems like Jesus has abandoned them. However, he assured us that he will never leave us. and he must do the will of his father, in order to make a dwelling place for us in heaven.

Whatever difficulties that we go through, we can be assured that God has not abandoned us, and that he remains with us. In order to remain in peace, we need to allow God to take over our lives, and sometimes endure personal suffering. Often, we become anxious and disturbed because we try to resolve all of our difficulties ourselves. When it would be better to just remain at peace and allow God to act with his infinite wisdom and power. Jesus told St Faustina that your duty will be to trust completely in my goodness, and my duty- meaning Jesus’ duty, will be to give you all that you need. I am making myself dependent on your trust. If your trust is great, then my generosity will be without limit. We must ask the Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray like that, with the trust and confidence that knowing that God will do great things for those who love him. For most of us, we strive to accomplish good things in this life and to avoid suffering. This approach makes sense when all of our upbringing, our life's experience and our education tell us that enjoyment in this life is the fulfillment of life, and suffering is to be avoided. even Jesus asked the father to take this cup away from me in the garden of Gethsemane. But the important difference is that Jesus surrendered his will to the father, and he said let your will be done not mine.

All too often we pray to God to take away the suffering and challenges in Life, without qualifying that we will accept the father's will, like Jesus did. Perhaps we only trust a little bit, and only ask God for a little suffering, instead of trusting God completely, and opening ourselves fully to let his will be done. God has always our best interests in mind. not for the short term but for our eternity. We often focus on the here and now, without taking the long view of our eternal life. Pope Saint John the 23rd said true peace is born of doing the will of God, and bearing with patience.

Again, we will need the Holy Spirit to teach us how to pray as we should, to surrender our lives to God. and to allow God to take care of everything. The Holy Spirit has been compared to the wind that takes us to our destination. We continue to fight against the wind, and go the opposite way; we will never attain and achieve what God has planned for us. And in the process, we may be going backwards, and in the wrong direction. We continue to struggle against the wind, and struggle to maintain peace in our lives. We often look for solutions in this world, instead of looking inside our hearts. There, we discover the presence of God, the source of true and lasting peace. This is the main reason why we do not obtain lasting peace, pure contentment, and true happiness in life. We’re chasing something else outside, and we end up more frustrated and discouraged than ever. Instead let us look within, and discover the presence of God - the true source of happiness and peace. In that way, when we pray, we will not be motivated by our selfish ambitions, instead, for our desire to do the will of the spirit. And ask the spirit to guide us and pray for things that will take ourselves to where God wants to take us, and not necessarily what we would expect.

Only God alone is capable of giving true and lasting peace. It is no coincidence that the priest quotes a passage from today's gospel at every mass before we receive the Holy Communion. When Jesus said "my peace I leave you, my peace I give you", when we receive Holy Communion in the state of grace. we receive the real presence of God in the source of everlasting peace. During these times of divisions and confusion, we need the peace of Christ evermore. let's take from Saint Pio, who said: "always remain close to the catholic church because it alone can give you true peace, since it alone possesses Jesus, and the blessed sacrament, the true prince of peace

主的平安

在今天的福音中，耶稣说 ”我把平安留给你们，我将我的平安赐给你们；我所赐给你们的，不像世界所赐的一样。你们心里不要烦乱，也不要胆怯”。平安是圣神结的十二果实之一，其他的果实是：”慈善、喜乐、忍耐、恩慈、良善、慷慨、温柔、信实、谦虚、自制和贞洁”。这十二个果实是由天主赏赐的圣神七恩所结出来的。当复活的耶稣进入上锁的房间，向门徒们吹了一口气说 “接受圣神吧”。平安就是耶稣给门徒的第一个果实。在今天的福音中，耶稣告诉我们，平安只有通过聆听天主的话和感受到天主的爱才能得到。我们的心思意念和行为，都需要听从圣神的指引才能符合天父圣意。没有耶稣，我们什么也做不了，永远不会拥有耶稣所允诺的永久平安。

我们常常以外在的物质来逃避内心的挣扎，在祈祷中我们寻求更多的物质来满全内心的渴望。我们骄傲的心说，“你不需靠任何人，自己努力就可以得到平安”。这是不可能的。耶稣的教导却正相反，主的平安是从内到外的，真正的平安只有通过耶稣的话语和圣神的教导才能实现。耶稣应许我们说他永远不会离开我们；在他在被钉十字架之前，祂告诉门徒他必须忍受痛苦和死亡才能为世界带来永生。当耶稣死时，门徒们以为耶稣抛弃了他们。但是他向我们保证，永远不会离开我们。他要遵行天父的旨意，为我们在天上预备我们的家。

不论我们经历什么困难，我们必须确信天主与我们同在。让天主来掌管我们的生活，有时必须忍受痛苦。当我们变得焦虑和不安时，就是因为我们试图依靠自己的能力来解决所有的问题。最好的办法是保持平静，让天主以他无限的智慧和力量带我们突破黑暗。耶稣告诉圣福斯蒂娜说，你的功课就是要完全地信赖主的良善，而我（耶稣）的任务是给你所需要的一切。但我的任务也依赖在你的信德上，无限的信德会获得无限慷慨的力量。我们也要请求圣神来教导我们祈祷。凭着信德，我们相信天主会为爱他的人成就大事。大多数人都希望成就美好的事并且避除痛苦。我们的教育和生活经历告诉我们，满全生命就是避离痛苦，享受人生。这个说法是有道理的。就是耶稣也在山园祈祷时，要求父把这个苦杯拿走。但最重要的是，耶稣最后还是将他的选择交给了天父，说 “但不要随我的意愿，惟照你的意愿成就罢“

我们也祈求天主拿走我们生活中的苦难，也想学习耶稣接受父的旨意。但是我们只有一点点的信德，只敢求一点苦，而不是全然的信靠。不敢敞开自己，成就天主的圣意。天主总是给最好的，祂不只看眼前，祂看的是我们的永生。我们只注意此时此刻，无法看到永生。教宗圣约翰 23 世说，真正的平安在于以忍耐，承受，并遵行天主的旨意。

我们必须要求圣神来领导我们祈祷，将我们交给天主。圣神是带我们到目的地的风。如果我们逆风而行，我们将永远无法达到天主许诺的地方。我们不要在这个世上寻找解决方案，我们必须回顾我们的内心。在那里，我们要发现天主，这是真正持久和平的源泉。当我们祈告时，心存天主，我们就不会被我们私意所左右，反而会渴望遵行天主的旨意。祈求圣神为我们朝圣的旅途祈祷，使我们达到天主应许的永远居所。

接受圣体前，神父都会引用耶稣的这句话 “我把平安留给你们，我将我的平安赐给你们” ，当我们在恩典的状态下接受圣体时，我们就从永恒平安的源头—耶稣的手中接受到真正平安的祝福。在这分裂和混乱的时代，我们需要这份平安。圣 Pio 说：“永远与天主教会保持密切联系，只有祂才能给你真正的平安，只有祂拥有平安的君王—耶稣和祂的圣礼。