An encounter with Christ is always an encounter with the mercy of God/Un encuentro con Cristo es siempre un encuentro con la misericordia de Dios - Dr. Austen Ivereigh (from his talk at our Diocesan Pastoral Center 3 Feb 2023)
“Peace be with you!” Jesus says when he appears to his followers who were gathered behind a locked door after the crucifixion (John 20:19). “Four simple words,” Pope Francis said in him homily last week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, “A greeting, but more than a greeting: it is a gift.”
Pope Francis was in Africa on a mission of peace and reconciliation in two countries in great conflict and suffering. To make these “four simple words” active, whether in a war torn country or our daily lives, we need to make Jesus’ “unexpected and prophetic” message of peace our own. To bring peace into the world we have to believe in the message.
In his homily the Pope answered how to cultivate the peace of Jesus. Francis started with three “wellsprings of peace, three sources from which we can draw as we continue to nurture peace. They are forgiveness, community, and mission.”
For today we will share Francis’ comments about community because we all live in community and "there is no Christianity without community.” “The Risen Jesus does not speak just to one of his disciples,” Francis begins, “he appears to them as a group.” This peace, though, becomes active not when we seek our own ambitions or expect a miracle worker who will bring us wealth but when we look to what unites us. God’s peace comes, Francis says, when we “go out into the world no longer for [our]selves, but for others; not to gain attention, but to offer hope; not to earn approval, but to spend [our] lives joyfully for the Lord and for others.”
Being humble in spirit helps us to overcome selfishness that can corrode community. “Humility,” for Francis, “is the grandeur and fraternity, the true wealth of every Christian. Let us believe in community and, with God’s help, build a Church free of the worldly spirit...filled with brotherly love.”
Showcasing SHA talent: It may not quite be the Popemobile, but 4th grade Julie's picture could easily be Pope Francis in South Sudan.
God bless,
Mrs. Alhadef
Campus Minister
4th Grade Aide
Jr. High ELA Aide