Memorial of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The line in today's gospel, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes (Lk 19:42),” speaks volumes to me. Too often I have held the belief that if I simply go with the flow and keep everyone happy and smiling then I am creating peace. And all too often the real method for peace has been hidden from my eyes.
For a year and a half I lived in Phoenix, AZ volunteering at a home for homeless pregnant women. When I first arrived I was taught how to run the house and fulfill my duties – one of which was to enforce the rules when necessary. I read through the rules that the volunteers and the women staying in the home had to follow. They ranged from having to complete daily chores to staying clean from drugs and a number of things in-between. Early on in my time there when someone would break a rule I would ignore it, act as if it didn’t happen and just try to “keep the peace”. I didn’t want them to dislike me and I didn’t want to send this woman back into homelessness. As I spent more time there I started to learn that peace does not come from permissiveness. You create peace through love – God’s love, not the world’s idea of love. Love isn’t permissive and what I was doing for these ladies was not loving them – I was enabling them. Love calls people to a higher standard, holds people accountable and challenges people to grow and better themselves. I began to learn that the most loving and often the hardest thing to do was to hold these women accountable for their actions and to teach them. When a rule was broken they needed to deal with the consequences. If the rule was continuously broken then they were asked to leave – we would help them find a place to go and offer support once they had left – we would keep loving them - but there needed to be consequences for the choices they made. As a parent I have to remember this daily – loving my sons does not mean they are always smiling and happy. Loving my sons does not mean that they will always like me. Loving them may not always feel or look peaceful. Loving them means that I will call them to be better people, I will teach them and challenge them and hold them accountable. There will be tears and it will be challenging, but we will all be called to greater holiness through it.
I think Jesus is using this gospel, which follows His entry into Jerusalem and precedes His cleansing of the temple, to tell us the same thing. We are here on this earth and we have choices to make. God gave us rules to follow, in both the 10 Commandments and the Beatitudes and all throughout the Gospels. When we do not follow these rules we will be held accountable and we will be challenged to grow and change. Ignoring them does not create peace but discord. We make choices with our thoughts, words and actions and we will be held accountable for those, not out of condemnation but out of love.
Thankfully, the Lord gave us the gift of confession and forgiveness to be able to recognize our sinfulness and move forward from it. I pray today and every day that the Lord may further reveal to me what makes for His everlasting peace and that it may no longer be hidden from my eyes.
- Amanda Grimm