The first thing Jesus brings is peace. Saint Augustine wrote that our heart is restless “until it rests in You.” Deep peace in the heart is a sign of a genuine visitation from God. Perfect peace is a very exalted state; it is precisely this peace that the peacemakers of the Gospel “make” and bring with them. This state of peace in one's thoughts, heart, and even body is so precious and so akin to God that...
The first thing Jesus brings is peace. Saint Augustine wrote that our heart is restless “until it rests in You.” Deep peace in the heart is a sign of a genuine visitation from God. Perfect peace is a very exalted state; it is precisely this peace that the peacemakers of the Gospel “make” and bring with them. This state of peace in one's thoughts, heart, and even body is so precious and so akin to God that those who bring this peace from Him will be called sons of God. In biblical language, a “son” means one who partakes of something: someone who bears a particular quality or attribute (for example, the nickname of the sons of Zebedee, “sons of thunder”), or someone whose appearance is associated with a particular event in a person's life—with birth or death, victory or defeat (“son of consolation,” “son of my sorrow”). The sons of God are people who have participated in divine peace to such an extent that they can bring it to others, conveying to those around them the peaceful state of their heart in which God reigns. Such peacemaking is a sign of righteousness. It is already an action in itself. It was not by chance that Saint Seraphim of Sarov regarded peace in the heart as the clearest sign that the Holy Spirit had come to dwell there, and said: “Acquire peace, and thousands around you will be saved.” The peace that comes from God is essential to our world, which is torn apart by conflicts and wars, the chief and first of them being the war in our thoughts and feelings.
The Good News of Jesus is, above all, peace. That is why the Lord's first words to His disciples after the Resurrection were the greeting: “Peace be with you.” The apostles are fearful and trembling, as they always are when present at a miracle (for example, when the storm was calmed, they likewise thought they were seeing a ghost). But the Lord gives us “a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim. 1:7). The power of the Holy Spirit grows out of deep inner peace. It is the result of the reconciliation between humanity and God accomplished on the Cross, of which the Spirit informs every believer. The Lord has reconciled us to Himself (2 Cor. 5:18) and, having gained victory over hell and death, proclaims this victory to His disciples. All subsequent apostolic preaching can be reduced to the appeal: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20), that is, accept the peace and forgiveness of sins bestowed by the Lord.
“It is I Myself.” How each of us would like to hear this word of Christ in our own life—to hear it as a word addressed directly to me. “Lord, let me find You, truly find You, so that my life may really change and become a witness to You.” Yet we seem to seek and knock, while no full answer comes. We do not feel that we are truly breathing the air of eternity, that we have known Him (John 17:3), that we “walk with Him” as His disciples and friends did. There have been glimpses, moments of grace, perhaps even a vivid conversion, yet our life has still not been transformed…
Yes, an encounter with God that renews and transforms the soul is as “impossible” a miracle as the Resurrection of Jesus was for the apostles. And this miracle became reality. More than that, the Lord promises that for those who believe “through their word” (John 17:20), an encounter with Christ will likewise become reality through the Holy Spirit, whom He will send to all who seek Him. “Your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him” (Luke 11:13); this request simply cannot remain unheard. The prayer that seeks Him is the one and deepest supplication arising from the depths of our soul. From its very beginning, such prayer is inspired by the Holy Spirit, mysteriously guided by Him, and fulfilled by Him as well. But, alas, our own depths are often inaccessible to us, buried under rubbish and debris, all kinds of needless thoughts, resentments, bustle, and old wounds. We must clear away the wreckage, find this prayer within ourselves, and see what the soul secretly asks for day and night. This is the labor of repentance. For this reason ascetics went into forests and deserts, so as to devote themselves entirely to seeking the “treasure hidden in a field”; this is also the meaning and significance of the Church's fasts, especially Great Lent. But it is also the labor of a whole lifetime. May each of us behold the light of the Resurrection.
…The disciples had to experience separation from Christ twice. The first time was when He died on the Cross; the second, when He ascended into heaven. The first separation was the greatest tragedy, but the second was the greatest joy (Luke 24:52), because the disciples knew that they had not been left alone. They felt Christ's presence in their lives and His constant participation; they knew that the Lord and Teacher had not abandoned them. They awaited the fulfillment of “the promise of the Father”—the coming of “another Counselor” (John 14:16) and their being clothed with power from on high to bear witness. The Holy Spirit is the One who brings Christ's presence into our lives, reveals to us the reality of His redeeming work, and bears witness in our hearts that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16). He discloses to us the true meaning of Holy Scripture (cf. Luke 24:45) and enables us to understand that the same Christ whom we meet on the pages of the Gospel is also at work in our lives. In the Holy Spirit we will find Christ and gain the strength to follow Him. Let us pray, and pray for one another, that the light of the Resurrection may enlighten and cleanse us, penetrating with love into the most distant and wounded corners of the soul; that we too, like the first apostles, may meet the Risen One; that at last, after the long night, the day may begin to dawn and the morning star rise in our hearts (2 Pet. 1:19).
3
3:12 Peter answered the people - Who were running together, and inquiring into the circumstances of the fact.
3:13 The God of our fathers - This was wisely introduced in the beginning of his discourse, that it might appear they taught no new religion, inconsistent with that of Moses, and were far from having the least design to divert their regards from the God of Israel. Hath glorified his Son - By this miracle, whom ye delivered up - When God had given him to you, and when ye ought to have received him as a most precious treasure, and to have preserved him with all your power.
3:14 Ye renounced the Holy One - Whom God had marked out as such; and the Just One - Even in the judgment of Pilate.
3:16 His name - Himself: his power and love. The faith which is by him - Of which he is the giver, as well as the object.
3:17 And now, brethren - A word full of courtesy and compassion, I know - He speaks to their heart, that through ignorance ye did it - which lessened, though it could not take away, the guilt.As did also your rulers - The prejudice lying from the authority of the chief priests and elders, he here removes, but with great tenderness. He does not call them our, but your rulers.For as the Jewish dispensation ceased at the death of Christ, consequently so did the authority of its rulers.
3:18 But God - Who was not ignorant, permitted this which he had foretold, to bring good out of it.
3:19 Be converted - Be turned from sin and Satan unto God.See Act 26:20. But this term, so common in modern writings, very rarely occurs in Scripture: perhaps not once in the sense we now use it, for an entire change from vice to holiness.That the times of refreshing - Wherein God largely bestows his refreshing grace, may come - To you also. To others they will assuredly come, whether ye repent or no.
3:20 And he may send - The apostles generally speak of our Lord's second coming, as being just at hand. Who was before appointed - Before the foundation of the world.
3:21 Till the times of the restitution of all things - The apostle here comprises at once the whole course of the times of the New Testament, between our Lord's ascension and his coming in glory.The most eminent of these are the apostolic age, and that of the spotless Church, which will consist of all the Jews and Gentiles united, after all persecutions and apostacies are at an end.
3:22 The Lord shall raise you up a prophet like unto me - And that in many particulars. Moses instituted the Jewish Church: Christ instituted the Christian. With the prophesying of Moses was soon joined the effect, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt: with the prophesying of Christ that grand effect, the deliverance of his people from sin and death. Those who could not bear the voice of God, yet desired to hear that of Moses. Much more do those who are wearied with the law, desire to hear the voice of Christ.Moses spake to the people all, and only those things, which God had commanded him: so did Christ. But though he was like Moses, yet he was infinitely superior to him, in person, as well as in office. Deut 18:15.
3:23 Every soul who will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people - One cannot imagine a more masterly address than this, to warn the Jews of the dreadful consequence of their infidelity, in the very words of their favourite prophet, out of a pretended zeal for whom they rejected Christ.
3:24 These days - The days of the Messiah.
3:25 Ye are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant - That in, heirs of the prophecies. To you properly, as the first heirs, belong the prophecies and the covenant. Gen 12:3.
3:26 To bless you, by turning you from your iniquities - Which is the great Gospel blessing.