Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
Jesus says, “I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”
These days when no shortage of preachers insist that all good Christians are persecuted by secularists or suffer as victims of humanists and atheists, this statement might easily be read as a call for us to sign up as culture warriors.
Jesus does now and again seem to traffic in binaries of us and them.
But there’s more: “Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.” In this injunction from Jesus we learn who are the lambs and who are the wolves.
The lambs are those who go out into the world—with no money, no sack, no sandals—in other words, with nothing of this world to protect them and nothing to ensure their success. All they have is what Jesus has taught them.
And what is that? His peace: “Peace I give you. My peace I leave you.” Similarly, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
The lambs are those who follow Him in peace—who live with his peace. The peace makers.
Who are the wolves? Who poses the greatest threat to the Word of the Lord—that Word at the heart of which is: “the peace I give you”?
I think the wolf is anyone who works to undermine the peace he has given us. The peace that every day he keeps giving us. The peace we too often refuse.
The house that Jesus blesses in this reading from Luke is the house of peace. It is the house that is and embraces peace. In this house, there is no place for culture wars of any sort. At the heart of this house is hospitality.
Jesus knows very well the price of his peace—crucifixion. Lamb among wolves, to be sure. But there isn’t another way, if you are the Son of God. Signing up for the culture wars in his day or ours is not of God. Jesus died on the cross for ALL of us—not just those who are convinced (and there are plenty of them) that God is on their side.
Peace is the way. Peace is our calling. That is the tough challenge that the crucified Christ puts to us.
Praise be to God for sending us this Word made flesh. We don’t deserve his mercy. That is for sure. But we need it now more than ever. And we need to spread it far and wide. Jesus is urging us to live peace with and preach peace to everyone. Everyone. Amen.
-Sue Trollinger