Sunday, April 24 : Saint Anthony of Padua

Jesus said to them: “Peace be with you !” (Jn 20:19) He said “Peace be with you !” three times over because of the threefold peace the Lord restored: between God and man by reconciling him with the Father by his blood, between angels and men by taking human nature and rising above the choirs of angels, and between man and man by reuniting in himself, the cornerstone, the peoples of the Jews and Gentiles. (…) So Jesus came and stood among them (Jn 20:19). “I am among you as one who serves” (Lk 22:27). He is within each heart. He is at the center because it is from him, as from a central point, that all the beams of grace radiate out towards us who stand on the circumference and walk around it. So Jesus stood in their midst and said to them: “Peace be with you !” (Jn 20:19). There is a threefold peace: that of time, that of the heart, and that of eternity. You are to have the first with your neighbor, the second with yourself, and thus you will have the third with God in heaven. You, too, stand “In the midst” also and you will have peace with your neighbor. If you do not stand in the midst, you will not be able to have peace. On the circumference there is neither peace nor tranquility of spirit but movement and restlessness. It is said that when elephants engage in a combat they take special care of the wounded: they enclose them in the center of the group in the company of the weakest ones. You, too, welcome your weak and wounded neighbor into the center of charity. Thus, after the Lord had shown them his hands and his side, he said once again: “Peace be with you ! As the Father sent me, I also send you.” (cf. Jn 20:21) As the Father sent me to my Passion, in spite of his love, so I too, with the same love, send you.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team