A Heavenly Peace

In John 20 Thomas is blinded by his search for communion. He needs wholeness. He needs care. He needs to know what he is supposed to live for now – since Jesus abandoned him. And in the midst of this ontological anxiety, Thomas meets the resurrected Jesus who breathes the breath of the Holy Spirit on him and says, “Peace be with you.”

I believe it is in the midst of our crises God meets us in this same way.

God’s presence in our lives is a holy moment, a thin space of divinity, where we feel God reconnecting, reuniting, and re-communing with us.

It’s where the Holy Spirit is saying to us, “Peace – be still.” So if you feel alone, please know that God is trying to re-commune with you.

But I know our fear of abandonment and rejection is so intense that our search for communion is often replaced by a longing for concrete expressions of friendship or affection. We want deep communion, but we end up looking for invitations, letters, phone calls, gifts, and worldly gestures. When communion does not come in the way we wish, we start distrusting even our deep desire for it.

But you can’t let this happen. Communion is our authentic desire, and it will be given to us. But we have to dare to believe. As Jesus says, “Blessed are those who believe and have not yet seen.”

Those people are us. We are the ones who have not yet seen. And it is through the Holy Spirit that we find peace in the midst of chaos, order in the midst of strife, hope in the midst of loss, life in the midst of death, fulfillment in the midst of emptiness, and communion in the midst of loneliness.

It is with the gift of the Holy Spirit that we can face this world and proclaim that for those who believe in Jesus power is given to commune with God; comfort is given in the midst of strife; grace is given when it should be stricken, and peace is found in the thin spaces of divinity that intersect our lives.

Whether we choose to believe in it or not, God is right in front of us breathing on us the breath of peace. Just as Jesus breathed the Spirit into the Upper Room in the Gospel of John, so too does God breathe the Spirit of peace on us.

May we this holiday season realize the peace that comes when communing with God. May we move towards that communion. May we experience a Heavenly Peace.

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