Our Lord’s words in today’s Gospel should give us some pause. How can the one hailed as Prince of Peace (Isa 9:5) and who says to his disciples before his passion, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27a), say that he has come not to bring peace, but rather division? How can a member of the Holy Family—which is the greatest example of household peace that ever will be—say that households will now be divided?
Of course, Jesus is not looking to create division for division’s sake. Far from it: Jesus prays at the Last Supper that “they may be one” (John 17:11). But Jesus does not want us to accept a shallow, superficial peace, the peace that “the world gives” (John 14:27b). Rather, he desires us to know “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding” (Phil 4:7), the peace that comes from knowing “the breadth and length and height and depth . . . [of] the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,” as Paul says in today’s first reading. But if we choose this peace, the peace that comes from God alone, and reject the offer of the world, we can be sure that we will face division and contradiction, as surely as Christ faced the Cross.
Today, let us pray that we might comprehend, as far as we are able, the infinite dimensions of God’s love for us in Christ. And knowing this surpassing treasure, let us ask for the grace to stake our entire lives upon it, embracing the challenges and crosses that it may bring for the sake of the joy and peace that lies within.