Over the past three years, Hong Kong has been impacted from different directions, and many people’s hearts are filled with depression and anxiety. Therefore, this year’s Lenten Campaign specially adopts “Peace be with you” [John 20:21] as its theme, hoping to remind everyone that God is the source of true peace.
“Peace be with you” was the first greeting of the Lord Jesus to all his apostles when he appeared after his resurrection. The Gospel of John records that he promised the apostles peace before his crucifixion: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” [14:27]; “I have told you this so that you might have peace in me” [16:33].
Coming to the third Sunday of Lent, the sub-theme of the movement is “Love Your Neighbour”. It turns out that while Jesus promised peace, he also repeatedly talked about the mutual connection between him, the Father and the apostles, and the most important thing about this connection is love. For example, he said: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me” [14:21]; “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” [14:23]; “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” [15:9-10].
It can be seen that peace is the outflow and fruit of God’s love. No wonder St. Paul said: “God’s love has been poured out in our hearts” [Romans 5:5]. St. Paul uses a very dynamic phrase here: “poured out”, just like a downpour makes one completely soaked, the appearance, the image displayed is the love that overflows all around.
Love is what human beings crave, but the world also loves money and material things. However, there is an obvious difference between love and money. The value of money and material lies in its scarcity. As the saying goes, what is rare is the most valuable. As a result, people become selfish in order to monopolise it, and they are unwilling to share it with others. They are afraid that if they give it to others, they will have less possession.
On the contrary, love is both “priceless” and yet precious. The more you share your love, the more you have it, but at the same time you will cherish it more. God’s love is poured into us in this way, and we must spill over to those around us. It is a pity that many Christians do not feel the love of God like St. Paul did. What is the reason? Is it because we lack a grateful heart?
This reminds me of Bishop Stephen Chow Sau Yan, SJ, experience of first taking office when he shared his homily several times, saying that he received complaints of all kinds. Of course, those complaints can be based on facts and constructive, but to complain all day long reflects that we are not grateful, so we are not satisfied with everything. The essence may be pride in our hearts. For this reason, St. Paul taught us: “Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves” [Philippians 2:3].
During this season of Lent, let us pray for the virtue of humility, learn to be grateful, so we might experience the love poured out on us from heaven, and love the people around us and enjoy the true peace bestowed by Christ.
Lenten Campaign Organising Committee, 2023
