Apr 28, 2025
When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape.
Andy Andrews
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When confronted with a challenge, the committed heart will search for a solution. The undecided heart searches for an escape.
Andy Andrews
Peace
“Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”
You hear it at every Mass. Right before the sign of peace.
And the Gospel that it comes from reveals a lot about what it really means.
Peace isn’t an absence of conflict or crisis. That’s quiet. As in “peace and quiet.”
Sure, it’s great when it happens, when we get a moment of quiet. But you and I have little control over that. Because quiet is the outside part.
So what’s peace? Peace is the inside part.
One way we know that? When Jesus explains what’s going to happen to the Apostles, and then says, “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world, you will have trouble. But take courage, I have conquered the world.”
Jesus is saying this at the Last Supper.
Jesus is giving His peace to the Apostles. Right before the very worst. Right before the events that end with His crucifixion and death on Good Friday.
Which tells us what about God’s peace? That God’s peace has nothing to do with what’s going on outside us.
That’s good. Because (in the words of Andy Andrews),
“All people – all lives – are either in crisis, coming out of a crisis, or headed for a crisis.”
Which means that if we’re going to have any peace at all, it can’t depend on the circumstances we find ourselves in. That peace has to be grounded in something else.
Which is why God’s peace is the only peace that lasts. Because it’s the only peace that’s grounded in the most inner, deepest parts of our soul.
That part of us where the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us. Waiting for us to come to Him.
In that part of us that cannot be shaken, no matter what’s happening on the outside.
That place within our hearts that’s made for God alone.
Where God will always give us His peace and His strength. If we’re wise enough to seek Him.
Everything we need. And more than enough for any crisis.
Today’s Readings
"Country Cousin", "The Visit"
Beatlemania apparently not making it to the country. By the time we get to the reprint, Phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust anyways.
Juniper Jones and Andy Andrews feel the sting of ridicule, at best foreign novelty. His fashion sense all out of whack on 1950 -- Big yellow shoes, tight pants -- I do see the big yellow shoes but am missing the Wranglers hereabouts.
Curious change in Little Archie -- he wins a national contest and we now go on for several pages to stop him from running back to the farm. I suppose we need to leave the kids admiring this country bumpkin -- as opposed to a sense that Juniper is still facing the same attitudes from that assortment of 50s Archie extras.
My life - my personality, my habits, even my speech - is a combination of the books I choose to read, the people I choose to listen to, and the thoughts I choose to tolerate in my mind…
Andy Andrews
The Noticer! I read this in high school and I can’t believe I ever forgot about it. I read it several times over my junior and senior years and now that I’ve found it again, I will read it over and over.
My life - my personality, my habits, even my speech - is a combination of the books I choose to read, the people I choose to listen to, and the thoughts I choose to tolerate in my mind…
Andy Andrews
Peace
“Peace I leave you, my peace I give you.”
You hear it at every Mass. Right before the sign of peace.
It comes from today’s Gospel. And the Gospel that it comes from reveals a lot about what it really means.
Peace isn’t an absence of conflict or crisis. That’s quiet. As in “peace and quiet.”
Sure, it’s great when it happens, when we get a moment of quiet. But you and I have little control over that. Because quiet is the outside part.
So what’s peace? Peace is the inside part.
One way we know that? Today’s Gospel. Which is happening at the Last Supper.
Jesus is giving His peace to the Apostles. Right before the very worst. Right before the events that end with His crucifixion and death on Good Friday.
Which tells us what about God’s peace? That God’s peace has nothing to do with what’s going on outside us. That’s good. Because (in the words of Andy Andrews),
“All people – all lives – are either in crisis, coming out of a crisis, or headed for a crisis.”
Which means that if we’re going to have any peace at all, it can’t depend on the circumstances we find ourselves in. That peace has to be grounded in something else.
Which is why God’s peace is the only peace that lasts. Because it’s the only peace that’s grounded in the most inner, deepest parts of our soul.
That part of us where the Holy Spirit lives on the inside of us. Waiting for us to come to Him.
In that part of us that cannot be shaken, no matter what’s happening on the outside.
That place within our hearts that’s made for God alone.
Where God will always give us His peace and His strength. If we’re wise enough to seek Him.
Everything we need. And more than enough for any crisis.
Today's Readings