The Peace that the World Can’t Give - Bishop Barron's Sunday Sermon

Peace be with you. Friends, we come to the third Sunday of Advent. And I want to draw attention to our second reading.

It's from Paul to the Philippians. Now again, can I urge you, take out your Bibles, read Paul to the Philippians. You can do it easily in one sitting.

It's very brief. It's a very important letter for a number of reasons. But I want to focus on a few lines of this one, which can maybe just run right through our minds, but they're actually breathtaking and they open up something at the very heart of the spiritual life.

So listen to Paul now. "Brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again, rejoice.

" Now the form there grammatically is the imperative. Rejoice. It's a command.

Which is why today is called Gaudete Sunday. That's the Latin command form, rejoice. So there's the first thing that ought to get our attention because you say, "Now wait a minute, can you really tell somebody to rejoice?

" Doesn't joy kind of come and go, depending on circumstances, and that if you try to tell someone like, "Hey, cheer up. " They usually take it as kind of offensive and it doesn't work. Doesn't joy just kind of come spontaneously?

Well, here we have a command. It tells us something very important. The joy that Paul's talking about is not the fleeting emotional state that we call happiness or joy.

Now, I'm not bad-mouthing that. That happens, that kind of rush of good feeling, which comes up because nice things happen or you hear a compliment or it's just a nice day and your emotions kind of improve. Sometimes your emotions are very low.

You're depressed or you're angry. One thing about emotions is that they come and go. I mean you have it and then you don't have it.

But Paul is talking about something else here, which can be the subject of a command. Rejoice. I'll say it again in case you missed my point.

Rejoice. So what's he talking about? He's talking not about the fleeting emotions on the surface of one's life.

He's talking about the joy that comes, listen now, from moving to that very deep place at the center of your life where Christ dwells in you. When Paul says, "It's no longer I who live, but rather Christ who lives in me," what's he talking about? He's not saying my personality is disappeared.

He's not saying that the vagaries of my life somehow have changed. He means he's found deep down within him, Christ dwelling, Christ living. Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Christ who links us to the eternity of God. When you live in that place, in that spiritual center, then you do indeed have a joy that lasts, that does not come and go, that is not a matter of emotionality, but is this deep, call it peace. I apply here that wonderful Hebrew word that runs beautifully through the entire Bible, shalom.

When the risen Jesus wishes shalom to His followers, it's not, "May you always be in a giddy emotional state. " What He's saying is, "May you have that peace which is beyond all understanding, the peace indeed, that the world can't give. " See, because the world can give you a superficial happiness from time to time, but only God can give you shalom, this deep peace.

Now, I've used some of these images before. They come up from the great tradition. They're signaling this conversion, if you want, this move which is basic to the spiritual life.

The one I've shared with you I know often before is the wheel of fortune, which is on the Gothic cathedrals in a big way, and the rim of the wheel represents at the top success, and then loss of success, and then failure, and then the recovery of success. And the point is, well, that's just the way the wheel goes in the course of our lives. Sometimes we're up, sometimes we're down.

We have good feelings, we have bad feelings. We have success, we have failure. We're losing, we're gaining.

And the one thing for sure when you're on the rim of the wheel is it's going to change. "Hey, I'm happy right now. Notice I just said right now because invariably it's going to change.

Or, " I'm miserable right now. " Yeah, and when circumstances change, you won't be as miserable. Well, that's life on the rim of the wheel.

But in this depiction of the wheel of fortune in the center, is Jesus, representing what I just was talking about. Representing this transition from the rim to the center or the depth. The point is don't live on the rim of the wheel, live in the center of the wheel.

And then you can watch the wheel go round and round with a sense of detachment. Now, welcome to another word that is basic to our spiritual tradition. East and west, detachment, “apothea”, “indiferencia”, in the language of Ignatius of Loyola, indifference.

Because I'm not living in the ever-changing world of my emotions, but in this deeper place. Now, this is also exactly what Teresa of Avila calls the interior castle, beautifully named, isn't it? Place of safety and power, a castle, a keep.

Imagine you're living out in the fields and you're vulnerable to attack and vulnerable to the weather and all this business. When you come from the fields into the castle, now you're behind these high thick walls and you can find safety. So in the spiritual order, a lot of us live our lives just out there in the world subject to all of its vagaries and changes.

What's it like when you undergo this conversion, this real change, and you're living not out in the field, but you're living in the interior castle? See, which Teresa identifies with Jesus. If I can use another metaphor, because all metaphors limp, each one's telling us something true.

Think of the surface of an ocean. Sometimes the weather is such that even the Pacific Ocean or the Atlantic Ocean can be utterly serene, just untrammeled. "Hey, I could float here peacefully forever.

" But what's the one thing you know? It's going to change. The winds will come up, the weather's going to change, the storms will come, and that placid ocean surface is going to become a mighty wave.

Well, that's life, isn't it? That's life. "Hey, hey, things are going pretty well for me right now.

I'm happy. My emotions are up because everything's peaceful. " You know it's going to change.

Therefore, and this is where the metaphor limps, I know, but to move from the surface to the depths. In the real depths of the ocean, there's this stability. Things aren't coming and going and changing.

It's that place of stillness and peace. And this is so important, everybody, for our Advent preparation, is to learn how to make that move. Now, listen as Paul goes on.

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, make your requests known to God in prayer and thanksgiving. " Well, again, on the surface you say, "That doesn't make a lick of sense. " I mean, Paul of all people lived with a lot of anxiety.

He tells us about it. He shipwrecked many times. He's stoned to death.

He's stoned, he's chased out of cities. They persecute him. They're arguing with him.

And Paul's a kind of volatile personality. You can see that in his interactions with people. So have no anxiety.

So imagine telling somebody, "Hey, hey, never worry about anything. " Well, see, if we're staying at the surface of life, that is silly. Of course you're going to have anxieties about all sorts of things.

But if we're talking about this depth level, we're talking about the center of the wheel, we're talking about the interior castle, then you can indeed make sense of this language, that, "I'm living in a place of no anxiety. " Think here of the saints for a second. Gosh, most of the saints lived lives of a lot of conflict and difficulty on the surface, but they found something.

That's why they're saints. They found this deep place. What was it that allowed Thomas More, think of all of the changes that he went through and all of the ups and downs, and he's the top of his society and now he's thrown into a prison.

He's lionized by everybody. Now he's being put to death. What enabled him to stay on beam during all of that?

Because he didn't live on the rim of the wheel. He lived in the center. What allowed him even to make jokes as he was ascending the scaffold to be beheaded is because he wasn't living on the surface of the ocean, but rather in those depths.

What was it that enabled Mother Teresa of Calcutta to just walk into the worst slum in the world and begin to do this exceptionally difficult work? Did she face anxiety at the surface of life? Well, of course she did.

Like anybody, especially in her case. But yet she found that place where indeed there is no anxiety at all. And see, St.

Paul is telling us, "Rejoice, find that place. Get there. " Now let me, I'll close with this.

So you say, "Okay, great. I guess I understand that distinction, but how practically do I get there? " Listen again to Paul.

"In everything, by prayer and petition and with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. " The short answer to how do I get there is prayer. Now, there are indeed prayers that are just, "Lord, please help me with this particular situation.

" And there's nothing at all wrong with that. But the prayer being referenced here, I think, is this deeper call it attitude of life, where you consciously raise your mind and heart to God. You become aware of God's presence in your life.

So just a few hours ago, I did my holy hours, the first thing I do in the morning. Does my life have anxieties in it? Yeah, of course it does.

But during that hour, it's as though and through the rosary and time in front of the blessed sacrament and meditation and scripture reading is I'm bringing myself to this deeper place or better, better honestly bringing myself, I'm allowing God to bring me to that deeper place where indeed there is no anxiety. Where indeed, even during the worst times, you can rejoice. Listen now how this little passage for today ends.

So if you do that, through prayer and petition and thanksgiving, mind you, that last one too is so important. It's another sermon I know. But that act of thanksgiving has a way of bringing you to that central place.

Why? Well, instead of dwelling on everything that's bothering me, to say, "Lord, for everything I have, I thank you. " Well, see, right away you're in the presence of God.

You're in the presence of a power that goes beyond this world. But here's how he concludes. "Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

" Can I ask you everybody maybe write that down, commit it to memory? That line in itself I think can bring you to the place I'm talking about. "Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding.

" See, it's a peace that the world can't give. It's beyond what I can comprehend or control. And listen how beautiful, “will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

” Where do our hearts and minds go? Well, they run to the surface. They run to the rim of the wheel.

They run out into the fields where all the anxiety is. But this peace, if you can find it, will guard your minds and hearts in Christ Jesus. And that's the place where you find peace.

That's the place where you find joy. And God bless you.