Do you know the term: “Garden Peace”?
She should not have been that peaceful. In my mind, she should have been terrified. Born to a upper middle class family in Connecticut, a year studying abroad in Ireland sent her life on a different course to serve the poor in El Salvador, during the brutal govt. war against the poor. She drew inspiration from Archbishop’s Romero’s homilies, so much so, that she would hand deliver homemade chocolate cookies to him every Sunday. Then he was assassinated by the army who, for good measure, threw bombs amid the mourners at the funeral services
“There are lots of times I feel like coming home,” she wrote a friend afterwards. “But I really do feel strongly that God has sent me here.” Then two of her closest friends were assassinated after walking her home from a movie. So she took a six-week vacation, visiting her parents in Miami and her boyfriend in London. Everyone urged her NOT to return. She knew it was likely she might be killed if she returned. Yet, after spending a long time in prayer in the Maryknoll Chapel where she was first commissioned as a missionary, she came out ready to go back. This is where her prayer led her. She returned to the poor in El Salvador. She was martyred 6 months later.
My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
His name was Colin Fowler. He was 18 at the time I met him. And he was a member of an Irish folk singing group. He hated the ‘troubles’ as they called them in Northern Ireland. He would use his music as a forum to speak out. “I take a lot of guff from my friends for my stand against the violence, the troubles. But if everyone just sits on his duff and does nothing – nothing will ever change.” It might get me into real trouble someday. But I cannot do anything less…
My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
This morning, 7 men put their hands into those of the Archbishop and pledged their lives to serve the church in obedience and chastity for as long as they should live. They did so willingly, in the shadow of the abuse scandal and the leadership crisis in the church. They have no idea where that yes they are saying will call them, how many parishes they might have to consolidate, how many parishes they might have to pastor, how many people they might be called to shepherd and guide. And still they said yes. Still they walked down that aisle and gave to God the gift of their lives, like a blank check to be spent however God and the church would ask them.
My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.
It doesn’t always feel wonderful – this peace that is the Gift of the Spirit. “Not as the world gives do I give it to you” is what Jesus says about it. I sometimes name it as ‘GARDEN PEACE’. I can’t imagine Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane saying: “Oh boy oh boy oh boy – I get to suffer the cruelest type of death that humans have created. I can’t wait.” Rather – it is the quiet sense that ‘Here is what I need to be about. Here is who I am at my deepest core – an obedient son of a loving father. And I can do no less than this.’ That is what ‘Garden Peace’ is all about. It has supported radical discipleship ever since.
This peace that is Jesus’ farewell gift to us –
1) is tied in to the sending of the Spirit – so it is about mission and journey, and being sent – being in the situations of life – the very presence of God. That’s what Colin Fowler taught me.
2) is tied to our identity and our commitments – that when we are true to our ‘Yes’s” – our chosen ways to live and love in the world – we will know a peace. (It is not necessarily lack of strife or struggle) a sense that tells us – here is where we must be. It is the peace that comes from knowing who you are and WHOSE you are. That’s what Jean Donovan taught me.
3) It is the peace that ultimately comes from living deeply the faith that is given to each of us from our God, come what may. It is the blank check moment, when we say to God, USE ME AS YOU WISH. That’s what the newly ordained invited me to know again.
Garden Peace. Not the every day, easy variety we long for, but the one borne of deep faith and love and trust – that sets heart and will and sinew and bone on a journey. Where do you experience it? Listen for that call – to make a stand, to be sent, to make a difference by what you choose and how you love. And then, this morning, as you come to the table, may you hear the promise of Jesus to you in all the situations of your life:
My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.