Is. 66: 10-14c; Ps. 66: 1-7, 16, 20; Gal. 6: 14-18; Lk. 10: 1-12, 17-20

“Peace be with you!”  Sealed by the Holy Spirit, let us bear the marks of Jesus.  “…for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body” says St. Paul.  The Greek word for marks is “stigmata” which is understood to reference Jesus’ five wounds.  It is possible St. Paul bore the stigmata literally but this is not known through tradition.  It is believed St. Paul is speaking in reference to the suffering and persecution he endured for Christ “through which the world has been crucified to me” he states.  These marks came from his persecutors who wanted to continue the Jewish law of circumcision for Christians.  St. Paul’s challenge to them as it is to us is to bear the sign of the cross as a “new creation”.  This sign we accept by faith at our baptism. 

Recall the rite of baptism begins with the priest making the sign of the cross on the child claiming the child for Christ.  He then invites the parents and godparents to do the same.  Together the Church, parents, and godparents have a responsibility to raise the child in the faith.  We are a new creation to be conformed to Christ by living our sacramental life “be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit”. 

Sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit comes with a cross.  Our faith will not only be challenged, it will be attacked.  Early in the Christian church many were persecuted and martyred.  Among them was St. Perpetua and St. Felicity in the year 203 not only for claiming to be Christian but refusing to deny their faith.  “Two days before the scheduled execution, Felicity went into labor delivering a baby girl.  The guards made fun of her, insulting her by saying, “If you think you suffer now, how will you stand it when you face the wild beasts?  Felicity answered them calmly, ‘Now I’m the one who is suffering, but in the arena, another will be in me suffering for me because I will suffer for him’.  She gave birth to a healthy girl who was adopted and raised by one of the Christian women of Carthage.”  (www.catholic.org)

Saints Perpetua and Felicity carried peace of Christ to their death.  The seventy-two who were sent were to offer “peace” to the household.  “If a peaceful person lives there, your peace will rest on him.”  We offer each other a sign of peace in our Latin rite with the words, “Peace be with you” and the response “and also with you”.  This peace can only rest on a “peaceful person”.  Are we at peace in Christ?  The world is ready to disrupt our peace if we dare speak of our faith in the public square and even when we dare not it intrudes on our peace. 

We live in times when it is tolerated or even accepted by the mainstream culture to have public cursing, hate speech, and militant groups who riot to promote hate through the veil of freedom of speech and to organize.  In contrast through the same veil we have peaceful marches to rally for “Life” and the protection of the unborn.  The irony of the story of St. Felicity is that for the persecutors to “kill a child in the womb was shedding innocent and sacred blood” (www.catholic.org) In the midst of hate in the killing of Christians the unborn was held as sacred.  Today the unborn is seen as a commodity of “choice” to be terminated even at the moment of birth.  The godly choice is to love them both. 

Peaceful people are not silent people no more that St. Paul was not silent in the midst of persecution.  His desire was to evangelize and “let no one make troubles for me”.  In Paul we see our normal humanity, no one wants trouble for themselves but they can also not deny themselves.  The early Christian martyrs refused to deny themselves.  St Perpetua said it best when her father frantically wanted her to deny her faith and prevent her death.  She said to him “Pointing to a water jug ‘See that pot lying there?  Can you call it by any other name than what it is?’ Her father answered, ‘Of course not.’ Perpetua responded, “Neither can I call myself by any other name that what I am—a Christian.”  It takes courage to stand up for our faith.  It takes the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ” as a peaceful person.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the power given to the seventy-two to subject even demons at the name of Jesus.  The world needs the peace of Jesus but as the song says, “let it begin with me”.  We must first subject the demons of sin in our lives if we hope to bring peace into the world.  It begins with us and it is nurtured in our home. Husbands and wives, when your spouse calls you what is your response?  “Si mi amor” with words of endearment or “What do you want?”  Siblings, if your brother or sister takes something of yours how do you ask for it back?  “Please return it to me” or “You better give it back!”  

“Let the peace of Christ control your hearts; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly”.  This peace in our hearts comes by bearing the marks of Jesus.  The seal in our bodies is renewed in the Eucharist.  The world of Christ is the guiding light for the soul to dwell in.  The fullness of Christ “source and summit” is our celebration in the Mass.  Each of us is given a harvest to work.  Where you are is a harvest waiting for you and you will not know the impact of your harvest until we reach heaven.  You may also not know until the impact God was waiting for you make by saying “yes” and was missed and lost.  It can extend as far as we are willing to go.  We have the “power to ‘tread on serpents’ and scorpions and upon the full force of the enemy and nothing will harm you.” 

I have a 1984 Mercedes sports car.  I was asked how fast have I driven it?  I responded the “speed limit”.  Most vehicles come with greater power than we will ever utilize out of prudence.  We treat the power of the Holy Spirit in the same way.  It is a gift underutilized.  We are a people of faith, hope, and love.  Let us challenge ourselves in the arena of life to call on the power of this gift and “another will be in us with his power because we will be in him”.  Peace be with you.