Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

John 14,27-31a

Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace which the world cannot give, this is my gift to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. You heard me say: I am going away and shall return. If you loved me you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. I have told you this now, before it happens, so that when it does happen you may believe. I shall not talk to you much longer, because the prince of this world is on his way. He has no power over me, but the world must recognise that I love the Father and that I act just as the Father commanded. Come now, let us go.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you." Jesus' promises the gift of peace, the messianic peace that contains within itself all of God's blessings. It is not just any ordinary peace, but the one Jesus himself lives, which is born from the certainty that we are not alone, and from the confidence that God's support and consolation will never fail. It is an inheritance that the disciples have received and are called to testify to the world. Being at the "right hand of the Father" means that with the resurrection he has full power over history. Not only he does not get far from them and from the world. On the contrary he will be closer to them, wherever they will go and will help them not to succumb to evil. Indeed, the disciples will scatter to communicate the Gospel along the roads of the world, but he will accompany them everywhere sustaining them with his strength. Obviously, the prince of evil, the devil, will continue his work of division, and will seek every way to break the bond of love that exists between Jesus and his friends. But the disciples will not be alone against the devil. Jesus himself will protect them. As Jesus himself assures: "For the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me." It is on the way of this obedience to God that the disciples discover perennial love, which also includes the cross, but whose end is the resurrection, the victory of life over death.