Homily for Easter 6 - A Wholeness The World Cannot Give

 

Homily for Easter 6

May 25, 2025

A Wholeness the World Cannot Give

 

            The first words spoken by our Holy Father as he addressed the world: “Peace be with you!” And boy, does our world ever need peace!

            The word that Jesus used for “peace” is shalom. Shalom means more than just an absence of conflict – rather, it implies wholeness and delight, fulfillment and flourishing. As one theologian put it, “Shalom is the way things out to be” – putting right all the chaos in the world and in our lives.

            And God wants our shalom! Sometimes we think that God doesn’t want us to be happy – that He’s constantly testing us and wants to take away our happiness. Recently I asked a friend, “What is making you happy these days?” He told me about the kayak he had just bought, how he loved to take it out and enjoy nature. But then he said, “But I just feel like God is opposed to it.” That struck me as odd. I asked him why, and he said, “I don’t know, it’s just hard to believe that God wants anything good for me.”

            Do you ever feel that way? Pope Benedict addressed this feeling when he said, “Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us? No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide.” God desperately desires your “shalom” – He said, “I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly.” God wants your shalom – not in a worldly sense of success, riches, constant good health – but a richer, deeper peace, joy, and purpose for our life.

            So how do we obtain this shalom? First, we live in right relationship with Him. In the Gospel, Jesus defines Himself by His relationship to His Father. He says, “The words you hear are not Mine, but my Father’s…rejoice that I am going to the Father…the Father is greater than I.” Everything about His being is related to God. A lesson for us – if we want shalom, we make sure we are in right relationship to God: giving God glory for our blessings, offering to Him our sufferings, spending time with Him in prayer, receiving the Sacraments regularly.

            The Carthusians are a group of hard-core Catholic monks, mostly hermits, whose motto has always stuck with me: Stat crux, dum volvitur orbis – the cross stands while the world turns. The only stability, the only peace can be found in the unchanging foundation of our lives: God Himself. Twenty-five years ago, British sociologist Zygmunt Bauman wrote a book called “Liquid Modernity”, claiming that the world is changing at such an epic speed that it kinda messes up our inner peace because we weren’t made to react to such drastic changes so quickly. For most of human history, if a person saw two new inventions in their lifetime, that would be remarkable – now we get new inventions weekly. So we need something to keep us grounded – and the only thing that has been there since the beginning, and will be around until the end, is God. If you’re feeling tossed about by the chaos of the modern world, perhaps we’re missing our anchor – the unchanging God.

            Jesus then connects loving God with keeping His commandments. And His commandments are also for our shalom! I’m a big fan of Calvin and Hobbes, and one of the recurring storylines is Calvin playing Calvinball, a game he invented – but the problem is that the rules literally change every play, every time. Sometimes the score is Q to 16. But that wouldn’t be a very fun game in real life, would it? We need guidelines to understand how we are to flourish. If I want to play a piece on a piano, I have to follow the rules of music – putting my fingers on the right keys, playing them at the right time. Otherwise it is not music, only noise.

            Likewise, shalom cannot exist in chaos. We need order to understand the path to fulfillment. We see this in the first reading – there was chaos in the early Church because some were saying you had to follow the Jewish law as a Christian, while others said that it wasn’t necessary. This chaos led the Apostles to gather for the Council of Jerusalem in 50AD. Jesus promised in the Gospel that the Spirit would lead them into all truth, and the Spirit led the Apostles to conclude that the Jewish Law was unnecessary, but that they still had to avoid idolatry or illicit marriages. It wasn’t that they had no commands to follow, but the Apostles offered commandments that were in accord with shalom – with human happiness.

            And so it is with the commandments of God – they lead to shalom. We forgive others, because that leads to a peaceful society. We are honest, because that leads to trust. We are generous to the poor, because it puts love into action, and love fulfills both the giver and the receiver. We practice chastity and purity, because we desire authentic human love and not using others for our own benefit. Notice that shalom is not equal to pleasure – it’s not always convenient – it’s not always easy. But shalom is worth it.

            Do you have shalom? Is your heart at peace, is your life overflowing with joy, is your life filled with love? If not – perhaps we’re looking in the wrong places. As St. Gerard Majella said, “Who except God can give you peace? Has the world ever been able to satisfy the heart?”