Working with the Word

Focusing the Gospel

Key words and phrases: peace, breathed ... the Holy Spirit, forgive, have life

To the point: Three times in the gospel the risen Lord addresses the gathered disciples, “Peace be with you.”

What is this peace he brings?

It is a peace that allays fears, empowers forgiveness, and prompts us to accept the reality of suffering and death as doorways to new life.

This peace is new life: the Spirit breathed into us by the risen Lord. ith Jesus. Though we sin, Jesus only wishes new life for us

Connecting the Gospel…

… to the Second Reading: The risen Lord “holds the keys to death.” He unlocks the doors to new life not only for himself who is “alive for ever and ever” but also for us.

We who believe in him as the gospel bids do not live in fear but in the peace his risen life brings.

… to experience: We usually use the term “peace” in reference to absence of war or struggle.

The peace of which the gospel speaks, however, can be know even in the midst of war or struggle—because it is a peace that comes to us only through the risen Lord.

**From Saint Louis University