Your peace will rest on him

7 OCTOBER (Mk 10,2-16)

The prophet praises the feet of those who proclaim the return of peace in the city of God, the holy Jerusalem, in the midst of his people. God is the giver and the bringer of peace. The herald and missionary announce that the Lord is about to return to Zion. This announcement they carry ensures that they are seen in a beauty unlike any other beauty. There is no glad news greater than this: the Lord is about to return to his City and every other good returns with him. This is peace.

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your glorious garments, O Jerusalem, holy city. No longer shall the uncircumcised or the unclean enter you. Shake off the dust, ascend to the throne, Jerusalem; Loose the bonds from your neck, O captive daughter Zion! For thus says the Lord: You were sold for nothing, and without money you shall be redeemed. Thus says the Lord GOD: To Egypt in the beginning my people went down, to sojourn there; Assyria, too, oppressed them for nought. But now, what am I to do here? says the Lord. My people have been taken away without redress; their rulers make a boast of it, says the Lord; all the day my name is constantly reviled. Therefore on that day my people shall know my renown, that it is I who have foretold it. Here I am! How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, Announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, “Your God is King!” Hark! Your watchmen raise a cry, together they shout for joy, For they see directly, before their eyes, the Lord restoring Zion. Break out together in song, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord comforts his people, he redeems Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; All the ends of the earth will behold the salvation of our God. Depart, depart, come forth from there, touch nothing unclean! Out from there! Purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. Yet not in fearful haste will you come out, nor leave in headlong flight, For the Lord comes before you, and your rear guard is the God of Israel. (Is 52,1-12).
God’s peace is not absence of war, conflicts, divisions, disputes, oppositions, disunions that reign between a man and another man, or between a man and his God. It is not even the end of a long and grueling exile. These things are part of peace but they are not peace. The peace of God is the discovery of man, of the people, of their truth. Truth to oneself, to God, to the whole creation. Peace is the gift that God gives man of his truth. He does it in his every possible relationship.

The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother (and be joined to his wife), and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

The disciple of Jesus is not only one who announces peace, who tells the world that God is coming to bring the richness of his divine gifts. On the contrary, he is the one who carries God with him with his every gift of love, truth, mercy, reconciliation, forgiveness, justice, holiness, compassion, piety, and hospitality. He brings God and gives him to heart and instills him in it as an eternal principle of its truth.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints make us be the bearers of the peace of God.