Ordinary Time 
Pause
“My peace I give you.” “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
Jesus
As Christians, we're called to walk in the footsteps of Jesus as peacemakers. This peace appears to have two pursuits: internal and external. There’s the peace we seek within our own hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits. And there’s the peace we seek to enact in the world.
Pause. Inhale. Breathe in the peace of Christ.
Pause. Exhale. Breathe out the peace of Christ.
As you breathe with the scriptures this week, may you learn that you cannot exhale without inhaling, nor can you inhale without exhaling. So too, may you discover the single pursuit of peace.
Listen
So remember that once you were Gentiles by physical descent, who were called “uncircumcised” by Jews who are physically circumcised. At that time you were without Christ. You were aliens rather than citizens of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of God’s promise. In this world you had no hope and no God. But now, thanks to Christ Jesus, you who once were so far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:11-13
Think
Perhaps it has something to do with our biology or our culture, but we humans are so prone to think there is safety in similarity. Difference is somehow threatening.
And as long as we continue to fixate on what divides us, what makes us different from one another, we will remain “strangers to the covenant of God’s promise.” But as Paul points out, it is the blood of Christ that brings us near to one another. Jesus willingly lays down his life to shatter the divisions between us and show us what it really means to be human: to love one another.
Dying on the cross, shedding his blood, Jesus shows us that we are all bound to a common humanity: all broken, all vulnerable, all in need of one another. In Christ’s blood, we are brought near to one another.
Tim Moore
Pray
Jesus, help me to see the truth that I am one with ALL my fellow brothers and sisters. Help me to know more deeply that I am bound to this common humanity. Help me to be honest about my fears. And help me to surrender them in love. Amen.
Go
Go in the peace of Christ to give the peace of Christ to others.
