True Signs of Peace (January 2020, Christ is our Hope)

“PEACE BE WITH YOU.” Quite typically, especially in larger parishes, people exchange the Sign of Peace at Mass with strangers, or at least people they do not know well. Unknowingly Cubs and White Sox fans may exchange the Sign of Peace, or Bears’ and Packers’ fans, even Democrats and Republicans or conservatives and liberals. What if they knew? Would they shake hands and say, “Peace”?

The whole point of the Sign of Peace is to acknowledge that we are all frail human beings, sinners really, who are about to encounter the Prince of Peace in Holy Communion. Jesus is the one who can reconcile us and make us one in Himself. He can achieve by His divine grace what we are unable to accomplish by our human power. The Sign of Peace is an expression of our willingness to look beyond our differences and our divisions, an openness to God’s love and healing.

The reintroduction of the Sign of Peace into the revised liturgy of the Second Vatican Council may, over the past 50 years, have become so routine that it bears little significance for many people. It may be just a casual gesture. Some people settle for a wave of the hand or the two-finger peace sign. Actual physical contact may be uncomfortable. Watching family members embrace each other, or seeing people shaking hands vigorously with a smile, certainly warms my heart.

The Sign of Peace symbolizes, as does Holy Communion itself, that we Christians are truly one Body in Christ. Through our Bap-tism we are made one. The walls between us, as St. Paul says, are broken down.

How important that is in our contemporary world, where we are otherwise divided in so many ways. Our current president, for example, has become a lightning rod. The impeachment process has exacerbated that division. The re-election process has become almost irrational, with some people acclaiming, “Anyone but Trump!” Immigration, gun control, abortion, the environment, health care, and so many issues lead to battle lines.

Making matters worse is the media — TV, radio, digital and print — that take sides on these issues, often with exaggeration, taking no prisoners. People gorge on the media with which they are already sympathetic and harden their positions. We get into social situations and have to be careful what we say, or we just avoid social settings where members of the “enemy” might be present.

Similar divisions exist within the Church. For and against Pope Francis. For and against married, or women, priests. For or against Mass in Latin or ad orientem (facing east, away from the assembly). For or against homosexual unions. These divisions exist with little or no regard for or even understanding of what the official stance of the Church is. As with the secular issues, there are Catholic media who promote pet causes, again with little or no respect for people on the other side.

We just celebrated Christmas, the coming of Jesus to earth. People who encountered Him took sides. They loved Him or hated Him. (Admittedly, some were not quite sure about Him.) Eventually the haters managed to have Him crucified. His purpose, though, and His message, was to proclaim the love of the Father and to invite people to a way of life that would lead to the kingdom of heaven. He wanted to draw all people to Himself as the visible image of the invisible God.

That is what the Eucharist is: the visible image of the invisible God. Jesus wants to draw people to Him and through Him to the Father. But we can’t come to Him if we disrespect, maybe even despise, those who walk up the aisle with us to receive Holy Communion. What a contradiction to say we love Him and want to be united with Him, when we are so disunited with one another. Can we desire the Body of Christ when we fail to be the Body of Christ?

The Sign of Peace, then, is not a casual gesture to be treated lightly. Just as the Penitential Act at the beginning of Mass allows us to acknowledge our sins “before we bring our gifts to the altar,” the Sign of Peace expresses our honest desire to be of one heart and mind before receiving the one who is Lord of us all.