Optional Memorial of St Pancras: True peace

Fr Richard's homily for the optional memorial of Saint Pancras

Readings: https://universalis.com/20200512/mass.htm

Homily: True peace

“Peace” is often an underestimated concept. The Church is quick to point out that “peace is not merely the absence of war” and cannot be “reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies.” (Vatican II, Gaudium et Spes, 78) It is, rather, an enterprise of justice and a fruit of love.

Any peace on earth between people “results from the peace of Christ which radiates from God the Father.” (GS, 78) In fact, Saint John XXIII once said: “The fact is that true peace cannot come save from God.” (John XXIII, True Christian Peace, 1959) It’s this true peace that Jesus gifts to his disciples in today’s Gospel: “Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.”  

Saint Pancras, who we honour today, certainly received and embraced that wonderful gift. At the age of just 14, he knew peace wasn’t just an absence of violence. He wasn't fazed by the threat of being beheaded for not sacrificing to Roman gods. He knew where true and everlasting peace lies – in the courts of heaven. 

St Pancras was martyred in 303 as a witness to God’s love. More than 200 years later, Saint Augustine brought the relics of St Pancras to England. Many churches here were then dedicated to the teenage martyr, including one in north London, one of the oldest sites of Christian worship in England and the reason for the name of a certain nearby railway station.

In this Easter season, we’re conscious of the saving action of Christ, who made peace by the blood of His Cross (Col 1:20), therefore reconciling us with the Father and each other. Saint John XXIII taught that the gift of true peace is primarily of the heart: “[it] is before all else an interior thing, belonging to the spirit, and its fundamental condition is a loving and filial dependence on the will of God.” (John XXIII, True Christian Peace, 1959)

We pray for that gift of deep peace for ourselves and for all people, especially at this difficult time. We continue to pray for our deceased loved ones that they may, as that traditional prayer ends, “rest in peace. Amen.” And when our earthly pilgrimage has ended, may we too enjoy that peace and rest of heaven that knows no end.