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Friday, April 17, 2026Faith

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The Church is a sign of the peace of God and speaks through the Apostles of every age the words of the Lord: "Peace be with you." Those are the words with which Pope Leo XIV greeted the world on the day of his election as the Supreme Pontiff.

Archbishop Richard G.
Henning

In the Scriptures, peace is about right relationship. Last Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, we heard the account of Jesus's appearance in the Upper Room. The Lord stood in their midst and greeted them, "peace be with you." This greeting is very significant because the One Who offers the greeting is that peace.
The original sin was the failure to trust in divine providence, and it caused a break in right relationship with God. That rupture then undid other relationships. The original sin was followed by the original murder and a long story of depravity, injustice, violence, and suffering. We were alienated from God, from each other, from ourselves, and from creation.
God's plan to heal that divide was entirely unexpected. The Lord gives the gift of His Beloved Son. And Jesus offers for us the perfect sacrifice. He offers Himself in absolute love and trust to Our Heavenly Father for the redemption and reconciliation of the world. And so, He is our right relationship with God and the healing of our other relationships. He is our peace.
The disciples, in their fear, had locked themselves away. Accompanying the Lord in His earthly ministry, they had frequently misunderstood His words and actions, including His prophetic talk of His coming suffering. They were upended by the events of the passion and remained so even after the Resurrection.

The Lord came to them and broke open the barrier of their fear with the announcement: "Peace be with you." He is there; their reconciliation has been accomplished. He showed them His wounds and invited them into His Own mission: "as the Father has sent me, so I send you" and "Receive the Holy Spirit." It's a critical moment, charging them to share the peace they have received in the Lord. Like Him, they are in some sense, to become the peace. As they live now in right relationship with the Lord by His grace, they have been charged to heal other relationships with the forgiveness of sins.
The Church is a sign of the peace of God and speaks through the Apostles of every age the words of the Lord: "Peace be with you." Those are the words with which Pope Leo XIV greeted the world on the day of his election as the Supreme Pontiff. Pope Leo has been an energetic proclaimer of this truth. Even as He proclaims the change in our relationship with God, in "Dilexi te," he summons us to a new relationship among each other, particularly in our compassionate solidarity with the poor and suffering. He has consistently called upon believers to live God's peace in the life of communities and nations. Recalling the Lord's words "Blessed are the peacemakers," Pope Leo has called upon us to put aside violence and seek solutions to conflict that uphold human dignity and protect the sanctity of all human life.
Pope Leo XIV was elected and greeted the world with the Peace of Christ on May 8, 2025. In a couple of weeks, we will commemorate the first anniversary of his pontificate. I will be asking our pastors to ring the bells of our churches in celebration at 1:12 p.m., the moment he appeared on the Loggia after his election. I encourage all of us to pray the rosary on May 8 for our Holy Father and his ministry to the Universal Church. May God bless Pope Leo and may the peace of God be with him and with all the world. Ad multos annos.

- Archbishop Richard G. Henning is the Archbishop of Boston