By Dave Drake

I've been re-reading Father Thomas Keating's book The Mystery of Christ, which I purchased at St.Benedict's Monastery in Snowmass, during a Lenten retreat last year. A truly fascinating word by word study of key aspects of Jesus' ministry before and after the crucifixion. Turns out, when Jesus says "peace be with you" - greeting his disciples in the upper room- he is saying way more than meets the ear. Jesus' words are fraught with significance. Peace is the tranquility of order. It is true security. True security is the direct consequence of divine union, which is the sole/soul remedy for the human predicament. Peace is the result of the principal benefit of Christ's resurrection- the experience of the Divine Presence as permanent. Peace is the treasure that Jesus triumphantly and joyfully bestows, or tries to bestow, on his crushed and demoralized disciples...and on us. So, as I have said in Bible Study before, the logic of it all does not simply suggest, it states as factual, that peace is with you always. You just have to trust that IT IS THERE.