Reflection for the month of May

 Peace be with you.

After His resurrection, Jesus met with people who were anxious, afraid, grieving or otherwise distressed. His first words were ‘Peace be with you’. Peace to calm their fears, lift them from worries and despair, heal where they were hurting, soothing away their disappointments.

Martin Luther King spoke of peace not simply being the absence of conflict, but also the presence of justice. The peace of God restores justice, providing security, protection, health and freedom from ignorance and want. This is a peace which the world cannot give, but we can with faith in God pray for that peace, for ourselves and for others. Peace however comes not simply by sitting quietly at home or in church but by obeying the teaching of Jesus in the way we live and in the way we treat others.

Through Jesus we know God and through Him we know God’s will for us, expressed simply in two commandments: Firstly, Love God and secondly love your neighbour as well as you love yourself. Yes - God loves us his creation, his children and we must love him in return.

How do we go about putting that love of God to work to serve Him? We might serve without loving but we cannot love without serving. We have Jesus to guide us. We must care about what happens to others, and not just our family and our friends. Share what we have – including our time - in whatever way we can.  Be caring and kind and equally well accept caring and kindnesses thankfully when they come our way. 

God is our judge, His Love, mercy, and forgiveness is ever there for us all, always there to sustain us. That is the wonderful message of the Gospels, to do our best to serve our society, as we strive to bring about a more peaceful, just, merciful and caring world.  ‘Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me’