SPEAKER_00: In the first reading, we hear they stoned Paul, dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead.
SPEAKER_00: But when the disciples gathered around him, he got up and entered the city.
SPEAKER_00: If we read that again slowly, he does not run, he does not hide, he does not say, Well, maybe God is telling me to tone it down.
SPEAKER_00: What does he do?
SPEAKER_00: He gets up, bruised, bloodied, probably still shaking, and walks right back into the place where they tried to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: That is not normal behavior, that is not our human instinct, that's conviction.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says something even more unsettling.
SPEAKER_00: It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Not optional, not unfortunate, necessary.
SPEAKER_00: This is where most modern Christianity quietly parts ways with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We have built an expectation often without even realizing it, that if we are doing God's will, things should smooth out, doors should open, peace should reign.
SPEAKER_00: If things get hard, we instinctively question whether we are on the right path.
SPEAKER_00: Paul would look at the same and say, You completely misunderstood this.
SPEAKER_00: Hardship is not a detour from the path to the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It is the path.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we go to the gospel, Jesus says, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you.
SPEAKER_00: Not as the world gives, do I give it to you?
SPEAKER_00: At first glance, it sounds like a contradiction.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is getting stoned, chased, persecuted, and telling people suffering is necessary.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus is promising peace.
SPEAKER_00: Well, which is it?
SPEAKER_00: This is where you have to get very precise, or you will misunderstand everything.
SPEAKER_00: The world's version of peace is not the absence of conflict.
SPEAKER_00: It is comfort, predictability, control.
SPEAKER_00: When everything around you is stable, you feel at peace.
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus is offering something entirely different.
SPEAKER_00: His peace is not the absence of suffering, it is the presence of God in the middle of it.
SPEAKER_00: Paul can be stoned, left for dead, stand up and walk back into the city because his interior life is anchored somewhere the stones cannot reach.
SPEAKER_00: That is why Jesus can say, Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid, and in that same breath talk about the ruler of the world coming.
SPEAKER_00: He's not naive.
SPEAKER_00: He knows suffering is coming.
SPEAKER_00: He knows the cross is hours away, but he also knows something deeper.
SPEAKER_00: He has no power over me.
SPEAKER_00: This is the kind of peace he's giving.
SPEAKER_00: Not a life where nothing touches you but a soul that cannot be conquered.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus gives you the key to it all.
SPEAKER_00: The world must know that I love the Father and that I do just as the Father has commanded me.
SPEAKER_00: Peace comes from that alignment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is at peace, even facing the cross, because he is perfectly united to the will of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: There's no division in him, no internal resistance, no second guessing.
SPEAKER_00: That is why he is unshakable.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we bring that back to our lives, because this is where it gets uncomfortable, most of us lack peace because life is hard.
SPEAKER_00: Not because life is hard, it's because we're divided.
SPEAKER_00: Part of us wants God and part of us wants to control.
SPEAKER_00: Part of us wants truth, but part of us want comfort.
SPEAKER_00: And those parts are constantly fighting each other.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot have deep peace with a divided heart.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is not divided, Jesus is not divided.
SPEAKER_00: They are clear about who they belong to and they live accordingly, even when it costs them everything.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the question you cannot avoid today.
SPEAKER_00: Are you looking for world peace or Christ's peace?
SPEAKER_00: Because if you're looking for a life without hardship, you're going to be constantly disappointed.
SPEAKER_00: And it will drain you.
SPEAKER_00: You will start believing something is wrong with your faith.
SPEAKER_00: And if you understand that hardship can be part of the path, and that the real presence is union with God in the middle of this, then everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: Then even in the middle of pressure, uncertainty, trials, difficulties, even in suffering, there's a place in you that is steady, grounded, unshaken.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the kind of peace no one can ever take away from you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.