PEACE in the Bible is a condition of total well-being, physical health, emotional stability and maturity, concord in family relationships, lack of enmity towards others and right relationships with God. The peace of Christ, according to St. Paul is Christ Himself. He is our peace and has broken down the walls between us to make the new humanity (Eph.2:14-15). To say “Peace of Christ be with you,” therefore, is not just another everyday friendly greeting; it most certainly is something much more than “Good morning, isn’t it a beautiful day?” The Peace of Christ be with you is of course a beautiful thing to say but we in fact do not always want to be one with others and are not always eager to have the walls between us and others broken down.
If we do take the Greeting of Peace seriously, we must first of all try to see the person we greet. Then we say in our hearts, yes, sister or brother, I do see you as a person, an individual and not just an anonymous face with an outstretched hand. I see you as a sister or brother in Christ, searching for peace. I see you as someone who suffers, whether physically or because of broken relationships within your family, or with your neighbours or with God or within yourself. I see you as one who need the healing, peace-building touch of Christ. I see you as a sister or brother whom I sincerely care about, whose suffering causes me pain, whose healing I very much desire. I care about you and I will do whatever I myself can to relieve your sufferings, to bring about your healing, to bring you to Christ who is our peace. As we begin this new year “May the Peace of Christ be with all of Us!”