The amazement of an encounter with Christ generates real peace
- POPE FRANCIS
The readings for the Thursday of the Octave of Easter speak to us of amazement.
The amazement of the crowd over the healing of the crippled man performed by Peter in the name of Christ, and the amazement of the disciples at the appearance of the Risen Jesus.
"Amazement is a great grace, it is the grace that God gives us in the encounter with Jesus Christ. It is something that makes us lose our heads a bit out of joy...It is not mere enthusiasm," like that of sports fans "when their team wins," but "it is something deeper." It is the interior experience of encountering the living Jesus and thinking that this is not possible: "But the Lord helps us to understand that it is reality. It is wonderful!"
"Perhaps the opposite experience is more common, when human weakness, mental illness, or the devil makes people believe that phantasms and fantasies are the reality; this is not of God. What is of God is this joy that is so great it is beyond belief. And we think: No, this is not real! But it is. This is of the Lord. This astonishment is the beginning of the habitual state of the Christian."
Of course, "we cannot always live in amazement. No, of course not. But it is the beginning. Then this amazement leaves its mark on the soul, and spiritual consolation." It is the consolation of one who has encountered Jesus Christ.
So after amazement there is spiritual consolation, and at the end, on "the last rung," there is peace. "Even in the most painful trials the Christian need never lose the peace and presence of Jesus" and "with a bit of courage" can pray: "Lord, give me this grace that is the mark of the encounter with you: spiritual consolation and peace." A peace that cannot be lost, because "it is not ours," it belongs to the Lord. True peace "cannot be bought or sold. It is a gift of God," and therefore "let us ask for the grace of spiritual consolation and spiritual peace, which begin with this joyful amazement in the encounter with Jesus Christ."
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Acknowledgement
Pope Francis. "The amazement of the encounter with Christ generates true peace." from a homily given at Saint Martha's House (April 4, 2013).
Reprinted with permission of Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
The Author
Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on 17 December 1936. He became the Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1998 and a cardinal in 2011. He was elected Pope on March 13, 2013. He is the first pope to be a Jesuit, to come from the Americas, and to come from the Southern Hemisphere. He is the author of Laudato Si, Encountering Truth: Meeting God in the Everyday, The Joy of the Gospel: Evangelii Gaudium, The Church of Mercy, Walking with Jesus: A Way Forward for the Church, and Through the Year with Pope Francis: Daily Reflections.