"Peace is my bequest to you, and the peace which I will give you is mine to give; I do not give peace as the world gives it." (John.14:27)

"Peace is my bequest to you, and the peace which I will give you is mine to give; I do not give peace as the world gives it."   (John.14:27)
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Parents used to leave their wealth to their children.

On the day before His death

Jesus said to His Apostles that He was leaving His peace as their inheritance from Him.

He did not give it in the way that the world used to give it .

First of all it is His peace.

He shares His peace with us.

Sometimes it happens that

we,

ourselves with no peace with our neighbours,

try to make peace between two quarrelling persons

and feel sorry for our failure in our attempt,

without realizing

that we cannot give what we  ourselves don't have.

But Jesus is God and cannot have ill will against anybody.

He has always peace of mind and came to the world to share His peace  with us.

That was why

on the day of His birth

the Angelic forces sang,

"Peace be to men of good will."

The peace of the world is not the peace of God.

The peace of God is divine in nature.

It is a state of love, free from everything that is against love.

The peace of the world may or may not have love.

What the peace making bodies gave the world

after the world wars is an example for   the peace of the world.

It was based on fear, not love.

The winners did not make peace with the losers,  but dictated it.

The peace dictated after the first world war was the cause of the second world war.

But what Jesus bequeathed was peace of mind,

based on divine love,

which is possible only when our mind is free from sin.

Love  forgives our sin

and peace,

lost when we sinned,

is restoted.

The peace Jesus gives is the one which is between God and us.

It is the result of 'God forgiving our sins'.

This is Jesus' legacy for us.

The whole universe belongs to Jesus,

but He did not leave us money

or any other   material property,

to be our eternal possessions.

But the peace He has left for us will be with us for all eternity.

Can there be a more priceless possession than the peace, 

which will be our eternal possession?

Peace being freedom from sin,

satan will be always  on the alert for disturbing it with his temptations.

Sin means disobeying the commandments of God.

A peaceful mind will express itself by its love for God and love for our neighbours.

To disturb our peace Satan  will instigate our neighbours to do the work for him.

It is a common experience that

even when we are at peace with a neighbour,

he may purposely or purposelessly initiate a war of words with us,

which may damage our love for him together with our peace.

An example may explain this.

Suppose we are saying  Rosary,

while traveling in a bus,

with  Rosary in hand

and a Protestant neighbour happens to travel with us

sitting by our side.

He initiates a conversation with us with a question about our Marian devotion.

It is quite natural that we get irritated

when he uses abusive words about our dear Mother.

The conversation breaks into a war of words

damaging our love for our neighbour.

It is Devil's trick to damage our charity.

We must be very careful not to lose our temper at such occasions.

A silent prayer to Our Lady for our neighbour is better than a wordy reply.

It is advisable to reply any religion related  question from a neighbour with a sweet smile,

which will work  wonders.

We must remember that they ask questions not to get a reply, but to irritate us.

If they are sincere in their questions, we can sincerely answer them.

Our Lord has paid a very heavy price for the peace He has given us

by sacrificing His life on the cross.

We should not lose it on any account.

Peace is not a word, it is life.

Throughout our life

we will be meeting with  innumerable situations,

in the family,  society, School, offices, working places etc.

where we should be careful with  our tongue.

To be always peaceful, 

we must love God above all others

and love our neighbours as we love ourselves.

Love must express itself  in acts of love.

Love tokens are always kept safe.

The peace we enjoy is a token of God's love for us.

It is to be kept with us for all eternity.

Lourdu Selvam.