Peace begins with in our own hearts…If it is not in our own hearts do not expect it to be in the world

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…..”As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes”……Jesus was a Jew, and his own people rejected him….Jesus saw exactly what they were rejecting very clearly and as scripture tells us today, he wept over what he saw…..Today this same rejection of Christ and his Church is no different then what took place 2000 years ago….And just as Jesus wept then, he weeps now…Our world talks "a good game" about peace but as Jesus stated …..”If this day you only knew what makes for peace”….Like many words thrown around in our society, the word "peace" is so easily said but when push comes to shove is ignored…..Why?…Because as the song goes…..”Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me”…..Peace begins with in our own hearts…If we are not at peace with God, we can not expect to be at peace with those around us, never mind will we have peace in the world……..To have this peace the Jesus talks about, we must reconcile our sins to God….This is the ONLY path to true peace………..St Luke tells us that peace is “hidden from our eyes”….What is preventing us from finding true peace?

“If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts”

Today the Universal Church commemorates the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary…….Why is this day significant?……Because Mary was born perfectly pure…She had to be because within her womb she carried Christ….And because Mary was pure, she could see perfectly….”Blessed are the pure of heart for they shall SEE God”…..The human race unlike Jesus and Mary are born into the world as sinners (that means all of us) and therefore we do not see as we should…..Sin blinds us….Many people equate sight with analytical intelligence…A person’s intelligence has little to do with “seeing” as God would want us to see…..I have heard married people say things like, “What does a Catholic priest know about being married”……To be honest with you, a lot!……If a priest is doing what he is supposed to be doing and most of them do for the record, they are living in a state of grace and because of that grace, they can see what someone who is not in the state of grace can not see…..In order for us to “see” we must first work on purifying our own hearts…What purifies our hearts?….Daily prayer, Weekly fasting, A Sacramental Confession and the reception of the Blessed Sacrament…..This is reality!…..And this is the path to true peace…And sadly, this path is rejected…It was rejected by the people of Jesus’s time and it is rejected today…And this is why St Luke tells us in the gospel…..”As Jesus drew near Jerusalem, he saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If this day you only knew what makes for peace–but now it is hidden from your eyes”

“For the LORD loves his people, and he adorns the lowly with victory”

Today’s gospel from Mass shows us that Jesus had a heart from his people even though they rejected him…Jesus knew full well the consequences of their rejection of him and this resulted in him weeping……In the final analysis, we each must make a choice…We can not control other people…..God himself gave us free will and he respects it….….With that being said, if we want peace….We all say we do!….Then we must prescribe to “the things” that make for peace…..If we do, we will have it and if we do not, we will not - Its really that simple….As the song goes…....”Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me”…..Peace begins with in our own hearts…If it is not in our own hearts do not expect it to be in the world