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What Does Jesus Teach about Peace?

This Rock Volume 18, Number 3   March 2007     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   A Primer on Peace By Msgr. Stuart Swetland   What Does Jesus Teach about Peace?   Beyond the Slogans: Seven Meanings of Peace   Peace is Our Life’s Quest By Donald DeMarco   Further Reading   The Battle that Saved the Christian West By Christopher Check   Interesting Facts about the Battle   Timeline for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary   Other Feasts that Celebrate Military Victories   For Further Reading   Vatican Corrects Controversial Translation By Jimmy Akin   Eucharistic Words at the Last Supper   Cardinal Arinze’s Letter   For Further Reading   What Will Save Civilization? By Donald DeMarco   Further Reading   Culture in Crisis: Pope Benedict XVI on Europe   Damascus Road The Promise I Made to God: The Conversion of Carl James Monroe By Russell Ford   By the Book Friends in High Places By Tim Staples   Truth be Told Cadavers, Calvin, and Anti-Catholicism By Robert P. Lockwood   Classic Apologetics Life after Death By C.C. Martindale, S.J.   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Preview (pdf; 3MB)    Subscribe    Permissions

Jesus has the messianic title "Prince of Peace" (Is. 9:6) and he is called by St. Paul "our peace" (Eph. 2:14). Jesus proclaimed blessed the peacemakers, telling them that they were so like unto God that they could be called God’s sons (Matt. 5:9). At the Last Supper, he gave the disciples the gift of his peace. His first gift to his disciples after he rose from the dead was the gift of peace (cf. John 14:27; 20:19). St. Paul teaches that God’s peace in Jesus surpasses "all understanding" (Phil. 4:7). Still, Jesus also taught that he did not come to bring peace but a sword: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have come not to bring peace, but a sword" (Matt. 10:34). What is one to make of all this? How does one sort through these seemingly contradictory texts? Is Jesus the Prince of Peace or a source of division? The answer is "yes."