Tuesday of the 5th Week of Easter
Acts 14:19-28 | Psalm 144:10-13, 21 | John 14:27-31
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27)
There was certainly little peace during my train journey home last night. Thanks to a power fault that seemed to have simultaneously crippled four separate train lines, it took several hours, in slow-moving trains crammed with frustrated commuters.
Even as I was listening to the Pascha episode of the Catholic Stuff You Should Know podcast, I could hear the angry buzzing around me. Many passengers made loud calls to their loved ones complaining about the delay, while Twitter and other social media showed clear displays of serious unhappiness. Even though the train I was riding in suffered no power outages, the continued illumination and cool air did little to calm most people’s nerves over our unexpectedly long pauses in between stations, and more than a few expletives were publicly directed at our local train operator. I can only imagine how much worse it was for the commuters on the other lines, who were completely deprived of lighting and air-conditioning.
Peace may have been in short supply yesterday, but as I listened to the podcast and read today’s gospel while “sardined” in the train, I did find it. My dinner may have been greatly delayed, to my stomach’s displeasure, but I was otherwise untroubled by biological imperatives (particularly the Pee and Poopy Show), and I managed to compose this entire blog entry in my head after I ran out of podcast.
So the Lord’s peace did indeed descend upon me as I mentally distracted myself with His Holy Word during this trying journey, and while I might not have left my stop with the disturbing grin I mentioned yesterday, I wasn’t muttering dark imprecations either. I highly recommend keeping a bible app on your cellphone, or just browse the day’s readings online when inconvenience or strife hits you. With scripture’s proven ability to calm frayed nerves and lower blood pressure, the life you thus save may well be your own.
That said, I will start mentally plotting alternate bus “escape hatches” along my daily routes. I have already forgiven this disruption, but I’d be a fool to forget.
Lord, you have been our salvation and our hope from age to age. Remind us to seek You out especially when we are troubled, draw inner peace in the midst of earthly turmoil, and share that peace with the ones around us where possible. Amen.