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The Perspective of Justice
Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 22, 2022
Gerald Darring
A Better World

No celebration of Easter would be complete without a reference to the peace brought to us by the Paschal mystery. Today’s liturgy provides us with that reference: ‘Peace’ is my farewell to you, my peace is my gift to you. 

Peace is what Jesus gave us in his redemptive acts of dying and rising.

The early Christian communities experienced dissension and controversy. The reading from Acts documents the manner in which the leaders of the church resolved those conflicts and brought peace to the Church.

There is a lesson for us in the elements of their peaceful settlement: the exercise of responsible leadership, respect for all the members of the community, and the decision “not to lay on you any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary.”

  “O God, let all the nations praise you!” for you have rescued them from death and offered them the gift of peace through your resurrection.

The perfect world, we Christians believe, is beyond the horizon, in an endless eternity where God will be all in all. But a better world is here for human hands and hearts and minds to make.

For the community of faith the risen Christ is the beginning and end of all things. For all things were created through him and all things will return to the Father through him.

It is our belief in the risen Christ which sustains us in confronting the awesome challenge of the nuclear arms race.

U.S. Bishops, The Challenge of Peace, 1983: 337-39.


Gerald Darring
Now published in book form, To Love and Serve: Lectionary Based Meditations, by Gerald Darring This entire three year cycle is available at Amazon.com.
Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C). This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org