A Reflection on ‘The peace I give is a gift the world cannot give’

This Sunday’s gospel (John 14:23-29) teaches us how to live and serve our Lord Jesus, even when Jesus returns to God the Father. In verse 27 (New Living Translation), Jesus told his disciples that he would give a gift, which is a gift of “peace of mind and heart.” This “peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.”

In the Bible, shalom is the  Hebrew word for peace. The root word of Shalom is “shalam”. One of the first uses of the word shalom in the Torah is in Exodus chapters 21 and 22. In these two chapters, “shalam” is used 14 times.

In the translation of Exodus 21-22, Moses provides instructions to the people on what to do in cases of material loss, theft of property, or injury. When that loss or injury occurs, the victim is considered lacking or incomplete. The one responsible for the loss or injury was to make things right. Thus, shalam is translated as “make it good”, “shall surely pay”, “make full restitution”, or “restore”. 

The ancient Hebrew meaning of shalom was “to make something whole”. Not just regarding practical restoration of things that were lost or stolen or asking forgiveness in the case of injury, but a full restoration with an overall sense of fullness and completeness in mind, body, and including the compensation for it. 

Shalom is never meant to simply mean the absence of trouble or conflict. Shalom means everything that makes for our highest good as human beings and of God’s creation. 

In Jesus’ time, when someone took leave, it was customary to wish for peace. There are many Biblical references to this wish for peace. In 1 Samuel 1:17: “Go in peace! May the God of Israel grant the request you have asked of him.” In Luke 7:50, Jesus said: “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” In Acts 16:36, the jail guard told Paul, “The city officials have said you and Silas are free to leave. Go in peace.”

In New Testament writings, ‘peace (shalom) be with you’ was (and is) the usual Jewish greeting when friends met and parted. In 1 Peter 5:14, there was an instruction: “Greet each other with a kiss of love. Peace be with all of you who are in Christ.” In 3 John 1:14. 15, it says: Peace be with you. Your friends here send you their greetings. Please give my personal greetings to each of our friends there.”

When Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart” (John 14:27), it means that He is not referring to the common thing to say at a departure of that Hebrew culture, to wish peace (shalom) to others as you left them and even greet one another. Jesus took this normal good-bye and filled it with deep strength and meaning as a sense of wish for well-being and wholeness to a person for his peace of mind and heart.

The “peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.” When someone in that ancient culture of the Hebrews if somebody said of peace as they departed, they said it without any special meaning. It was the same when we said goodbye. 

But Jesus wanted them to know that when He said peace I leave with you, it wasn’t in the casual, empty way that most people said it. It means, God be with you.  It is different from the ancient culture. Jesus meant peace in this world is often based on distraction or deliberate blindness, and lies. Jesus offers a better peace, a real peace. This is the peace of God the Son, with His complete trusting love in God the Father.

When Jesus said that the “peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.” It means that the peace which the world offers us is the peace of escape, the peace which comes from the avoidance of trouble and from refusing to face conflicts.

Jesus carefully described the peace as ‘My peace.’ His peace was an untroubled and unfearful heart in spite of all the suffering and conflict ahead of Him.

Still in verse 27, Jesus said: “So don’t be troubled or afraid.” In the first verse of this chapter (John 14), Jesus said: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.” With faith in God and His Son, with the receiving of His Spirit and His peace, Jesus assured us of an untroubled heart in a quite troubled life and situation.

It is our life situation or context that we long for or demand peace amid armed conflict.

In our country, there is no genuine and lasting peace if armed conflict cannot be addressed. Peace cannot be achieved through rhetoric or even a government program of “end local communist armed conflict” (ELCAC).

Moreover, the armed conflict in the Philippines will not be resolved through the election. Elections in our country are undemocratic. It is dominated by the wealthy people with their dynasties that have even hijacked the party-list system. Election equals vote-buying. Electoral exercise in our country is a futile activity for the poor and oppressed. It did not solve their problems or even provide hope for change.

What peace for us now? Before the May Election this year, the Marcos government issued Memorandum Circular No. 83, which institutionalized the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace and Development (NAP-UPD) 2025–2028. This “whole-of-nation approach” program is still a “counter-insurgency” plan patterned under the US counter-insurgency plan. The so-called “peace” here is a US imperialist-inspired goal to “end local communist armed conflict” in the country without resolving the root causes of the problems or of the armed conflicts.

The NAP-UPD will only worsen the human rights situation in our country. The number of fake surrenderers will increase. It only reinforces corruption. Red-tagging and other human rights violations will be further aggravated. Militarization, combat operations, bombings, and other forms of harassment and intimidation will increase the number of evacuees and internal refugees.

Meanwhile, in the urban centers, the legal democratic organizations and movements will be suppressed, which will lead to massive and rampant human rights violations. It is no different from the present activities of the NTF-ELCAC.

There is no solution to the root cause of armed conflict, which is basically the landlessness of the peasantry (land of its own to be tilled by the farmers, farm workers). The other problems in the countryside include land grabbing, land use conversion, deforestation, large-scale mining, and destruction of God’s creation. These sources of plunder will further ignite armed conflict.

Surely, the NAP-UPD will fail because the above-mentioned problems are not addressed. Surely, the “peace” that the Marcos Jr regime is speaking about is the peace that “world cannot give.”

The peace of Jesus Christ is the genuine peace of the people of God. True shalom is found through a relationship with Christ, but it doesn’t mean we won’t have difficulties in our lives. It does mean that God will be with us, filling us with His power and presence, and face all circumstances wrought about with armed conflict. The peace of Jesus Christ is a struggle for harmony and equal living. It is a struggle and a hope. In Romans 15:13, Paul says, “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit” (NLT).

The God of hope enables us to overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. This is wonderful news! Even in tough seasons, God provides all we need, the perfect peace to face each life storm (Isaiah 26:3).

When we try to do everything by ourselves, we are really struggling with trust issues. We often just work harder, trying to keep the things in our lives that we are afraid to lose. In the long run, this rarely works. 

What we need is a collective struggle. Collective struggle means building people’s strength and power. We need Christ because the majority of the Filipinos are Christians. The peace of Jesus Christ must be translated into the struggle of Christians who are calling for genuine and just peace. It means organizing the strength of the Christians. Paul said: “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace” (Ephesians 4:3, NLT).

This struggle includes the call to the Marcos Jr regime (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) to return to the negotiating table and politically resolve the armed conflict. 

Throw away the National Action Plan for Unity, Peace, and Development! Stop corruption. Uphold the dignity and integrity of human beings and God’s creation.