PEACE BE WITH YOU

The first greeting of the Risen Lord – the first greeting of Pope Leo XIV

‘Peace be with you’ were the first words of the Risen Christ to the frightened disciples huddled in a room with doors tightly closed afraid of being arrested, imprisoned and put to death.

The same were the words of our new Pope Leo XIV on the evening of his election on May 9, 2025 as he appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica for the first time and addressed the huge gathering in the piazza:

“Peace be with all of you. Dearest brothers and sisters, this is the first greeting of the Risen Christ, the good shepherd who gave his life for God’s flock. I too would like this greeting of peace to enter your heart, to reach your families, to all people, wherever they are, to all peoples, to the whole earth. Peace with you!

This is the peace of the Risen Christ, an unarmed and disarming peace, humble and persevering. It comes from God, God who loves us unconditionally. We still have in our ears that weak but always courageous voice of Pope Francis who blessed Rome!

The Pope who blessed Rome gave his blessing to the whole world, to the entire world, that Easter morning.  

Allow me to follow up on that same blessing: God cares for us, God loves all of us, and evil will not prevail! We are all in God’s hands. Therefore, without fear, united hand in hand with God and among ourselves, let us move forward.

We are disciples of Christ.  Christ goes before us. The world needs His light. Humanity needs Him as the bridge to reach God and His love.

Help us too, then help each other to build bridges – with dialogue, with encounter, uniting all of us to be oner people always in peace. Thank you, Pope Francis!”

What was the Holy Father wanting to convey to the whole Church? The same as what the Risen Christ wanted to convey to his disciples and through them to the Church yet to be born in the Holy Spirit: ‘Do not be afraid of proclaiming the Good News to the whole of creation and being my witnesses to the ends of the earth.’ This is precisely what Pope Francis endeavoured to do all through his twelve-year pontificate – to exhort the Church not to be afraid to proclaim to be witnesses of the joy of the Gospel.  

To be witnesses of Christ we need courage of the Holy Spirit

To be witnesses of Christ we need courage which is a gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, on that very day and in the same conversation, the Risen Lord breathed the Holy Spirit into his disciples, commissioning them to be his messengers of divine love and peace to the whole world. Anointed in the Holy Spirit, they were to proclaim everywhere the forgiveness of God which is the foundation of peace.  

This is the precisely the truth the Risen Lord revealed and explained to the two crest-fallen disciples to Emmaus on the day of the resurrection – the truth about evangelization and the driving force of the Church’s mission:

“This it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24: 46-49).  

The ‘power from on high’, i.e., the Holy Spirit enables the peace of “God which surpasses all understanding” to “guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4: 7) and to proclaim this peace to the whole world. Christ came into this world with the announcement of peace by the angels, gave us the gift of peace before his death and greeted the world with the gift of peace at his resurrection. Therefore, the primary mission of the Church in the world is to proclaim the peace of Christ to everyone,  in every situation and every level; and this is not possible unless and until the peace of Christ rules the heart of each baptized Christian.   

In a way the Holy Father, in his very first appearance on the balcony of St. Peter’s after his election, was confirming the people of God in the power of the Holy Spirit so that they are not afraid to proclaim the Gospel of God’s love and peace in a world torn by hatred, violence and war.   

Hatred and violence belong to our human nature wounded by sin; peace belongs to our divinized human nature restored to the image of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. If we truly understand the meaning of baptism, we will also understand the work of the Holy Spirit that makes us new by restoring in us the image of God that we lost by the sin of disobedience of our first parents.

The mystery of our Baptism

St. Basil the Great has a beautiful reflection on the mystery of our Baptism:

“By three immersions and as many invocations the great mystery of Baptism is performed. So the appearance of death is conveyed, and through the handing over of divine knowledge the baptized are enlightened. Therefore if there is any grace in the water it is not because of any power the water may possess but derives from the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is not a removal of dirt from the body but an appeal to God from a clear conscience. For this reason the Lord, to prepare us for the risen life, lays before us all the gospel precepts. We must avoid anger, endure evil, be free from the love of pleasure and the love of money. So shall we by our own choice achieve those things which are the natural endowments of the world to come.

Through the Holy Spirit paradise is restored; we can ascend to heaven and gain our sonship. We can address God as Father with confidence, we can share in the grace of Christ, we can be called children of the light and sharers in eternal glory; in a word we can become full of all manner of blessings in this world and in the world to come. We can observe as in a glass the beauty of the goods stored up for us in the future but now anticipated in faith, as though they were already here. If the earnest is such, what must the perfect thing be? If the first fruits are such, what must the consummation be? (Office of Readings, Monday, Week 4 of Eastertide).   

If such is the transformation worked in us through baptism we cannot but be reflections of the world to come already here and now as we journey on this earth. In all his letters St. Paul reminds us of the new life in Christ that is ours through Baptism and how it entails putting to death what is earthly in us and putting on what is heavenly. On this earth our lives are hidden “with Christ in God” (Colossians 3: 3), but when Christ appears, we also “will appear with him in glory” (Colossians 3: 4).

 Humility – the way to peace

The ‘Peace Prayer’ of St Francis of Assisi always sets a mirror before us of the Spirit-filled life we are called to live if we are to be ‘instruments of peace’:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled,

as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen

Recently I read an enchanting and significant episode about the humility of St. Francis of Assisi:

“St. Francis once lived in the place of Porziuncola with Brother Masseo da Marignano, a man of great holiness, discretion and grace in speaking about God, for which St. Francis loved him every much. One day, when St. Francis was returning from the forest and from prayer, as he was coming out of the woods, the same Brother Masseo wanted to prove how humble Francis was and went to meet him, and almost proverbially said: ‘Why after you? Why after you?’ To which St. Francis answered: ‘What is this? What do you mean?’ Brother Masseo said: ‘I say, why does the whole world follow you, and every person seems to desire to see you and hear you and obey you? You are not a handsome man in body, you are not of great learning, you are not noble; why then does the whole world follow you?’ Hearing this, St. Francis, rejoicing in spirit, raising his face to heaven, remained for a long time with his face to heaven, and then returning to himself, he knelt down and gave praise and thanks to God. And then in a spirit of great fervour he turned to Brother Masseo and said: ‘Do you want to know, why me? Do you want to know why the whole world comes after me? This I know that it is because the Lord, who is in heaven, who sees the evil and the good in all places – because, I say, his holy eyes have found among men no one more wicked, more imperfect, or a greater sinner than I.’ “ (Praying Today. The confidence to prevail, by Angelo Comastri. Published by CCBI, Bangalore, 2024, pp. 44-45).