Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Family peace
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man ‘against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.’ “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Mt 10,34-40
“Peace on earth to men,” the angels announce at the stable in Bethlehem. “Blessed are the peacemakers” Jesus announces on the Mount of the Beatitudes. “Peace be with you” is his greeting when he appears before the apostles after the resurrection. Jesus is a peacemaker. What is then the meaning of the words in today’s passage: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth”? What kind of peace has Jesus brought and what kind has he come to bother with? The answer is simple, and we experienced it at the beginning of our journey of faith. To those who put themselves to follow him, Jesus gives that inner peace that comes from the awareness that they have met the source of life and the light that illuminates the mystery that surrounds us in his person. Since the beginning, however, he has asked us to follow him so radically to change also the relationships with your beloved ones, sometimes causing temporary splits. The human affections, in fact, tend to be exclusive, all-encompassing, possessive and can hardly stand external interference, even if one has to do with relations belonging to different spheres. However, when you set up again your affections and begin a journey of faith together, the previous relationships are reconstituted immediately, even to a much higher level and with greater stability. This is what happened between us. More than thirty years ago, when we met Oliviero and we established a prayer group in Saronno, mom, while attending the meetings, did not share some of the speeches that had begun to circulate among us about founding a community, that at a certain point were pushed to cohabitation and the community of goods. They were beautiful dream, though, but they were going to touch the exclusivity and intimacy of family affection, creating troubles and sometimes disagreement. An evening, during a harder argument than usual, mom got deeply upset; therefore, I spoke up and clearly expressed our dissent. The project got stuck, and then we all recognized that this was the right choice. Since then, our relationship as a couple has returned clear as it had always been, and we have found inner peace, along with a new family development.