April 19, 2026
Dear St. Rita Families,
I am spending a few days of vacation in one of my favorite countries, Japan. While here, I am taking the opportunity to visit some of the Catholic pilgrimage sites in the area, since, while Japan cannot be considered a Christian country, there is indeed some Christian history here that is worth exploring. One place that I had decided not to visit (out of necessity I thought) was the Cathedral of the Assumption in Hiroshima, also known as the Memorial Cathedral of World Peace. But amusingly, when we left Yokohama, I left the small pyx of unconsecrated hosts I use at the Cathedral there, by accident. So, I needed to get to a Church and beg some hosts to be able to celebrate Mass! And the Lord provided for all things, as usual. So, went I went to the Cathedral, I prayed for peace in the world, not because I have a pie-in-the-sky idea that we can just forget all of our differences and hold hands and sing Kum-ba-ya, but because I want the Peace of Christ to reign in the hearts of all men.
Peace is a greatly misunderstood reality in the modern world, and it is important that we reflect on the Lord’s words from the Last Supper, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (Jn 14:27). I preached about peace last Sunday at the 11:00 AM Mass, and I am sharing that homily below so you can reflect on it a little more. I will perhaps write more about it later on, but for now, I will add that that absolute most we can do to encourage Christ’s Peace in our world is to become saints! This has always been the Christian imperative, and since we have never been able to place all our confidence in any civil government in the history of the world, why not place our trust in God?
The Holy Father, when giving his first address after being elected, referenced heavily the Peace of Christ, as given to the Apostles on the Day of the Resurrection. But, he also said that we are and must be a missionary Church. Your sanctity is utterly evangelistic and cannot be otherwise. Whether you are simply giving good example or actively engaging with others about the Faith, or whether you are doing what is good even though no one will ever see you, you are living as a healthy member of the Body of Christ, and the health of this little part of the Body of Christ is good for the whole Body. Therefore, be a saint! Make that decision now, and every day, in your heart, and “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Heavenly Father” (Mt 5:16)!
In Christ,
Fr. Christensen
Last Sunday’s Homily:
“Peace be with you!” These first words of the Lord to the Apostles after His Resurrection are much on the minds of many in the Church and in the world, especially as old wars rage on and new wars begin. In the midst of mankind’s desire for peace on earth, it is eminently sad to note that very few seem to desire the peace that only Christ can give! John, whose Gospel we have just heard, tells of Our Lord’s words of peace to the Apostles at the Last Supper, words that we hear at every Mass: “Peace I leave you; my peace I give you.” In the Gospel, Jesus continues, “Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” It was no accident that in the midst of the Pax Romana – the Roman Peace – a peace established, orchestrated, and kept by political and military might – Christ, the Prince of Peace, was born. It was no accident that God had to show the world in the midst of that Pax Romana that true peace is not established in the hearts of men by means of terror, Rome’s instrument of which was crucifixion of the enemies of the state. It was also no accident that God had to show the world in the midst of that Pax Romana that true peace is established in the hearts of men by means of the Crucifixion of one Man who was also God, namely Jesus Christ. The difference is that because of Jesus, who went to His martyrdom out of Love, Christians are no longer afraid of crucifixion. “Peace through Fear” has been uprooted and destroyed. It has been replaced with “Peace through Faith, Hope, and Love.”
Listen to the words of the 2nd Psalm: “Why this tumult among nations, among peoples this useless murmuring? They arise, the kings of the earth, princes plot against the Lord and his Anointed. “Come let us break their fetters, come, let us cast off their yoke.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord is laughing them to scorn. Then he will speak in his anger, his rage will strike them with terror. “It is I who have set up my king on Zion, my holy mountain.” I will announce the decree of the Lord: The Lord said to me: “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask and I shall bequeath you the nations, put the ends of the earth in your possession. With a rod of iron you will break them, shatter them like a potter’s jar.” Now, O kings, understand, take warning, rulers of the earth; serve the Lord with awe and trembling, pay him your homage lest he be angry and you perish; for suddenly his anger will blaze. Blessed are they who put their trust in God.”
Christ’s Peace has a power in it that overcomes all human strength – especially and including earthly powers – and that itself can never be overcome, because it faces even torture and death with the Power of the Resurrection. And it is this Peace that Christ bestows upon His Apostles today in the Gospel. It is this Peace that is offered to you at every Mass. It is this Peace that is, sadly, often debased and degraded if the Sign of Peace is exchanged during Holy Mass by peace signs, meaningless chatter, and idle words. It is the mission of Holy Church to proclaim and promote this Peace across the world and across the ages. That is the meaning when Our Lord, after offering this Peace to the Apostles, says to them, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” For this reason, Bishops – who are the successors of the Apostles – begin Mass with the greeting, “Peace be with you.” The Church brings with Her wherever She goes the Peace that the world cannot give, and it is imperative that we as a Church double down now precisely on that Peace as the means of extending the reign of Christ in the world, for that is the mission we have received!
This mission, unfortunately, is obscured in the minds of many of the faithful, because many of the faithful believe that Christ came to make our lives easy and comfortable, to take us back to the Garden of Eden. The way to Eden is blocked by a cherubim with a flaming sword, however. Our Lord did not come to take away all struggle and establish some kind of false world peace where everyone just gets along and no one offends anyone else. That kind of peace was attempted by a Greek ruler named Antiochus Epiphanes IV, who ruled over Israel during the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd Century BC, narrated in the Old Testament Books of Maccabees. Antiochus tried to force the Jews to give up their religion, as he did to other conquered nations as well. His strategy was to have everyone in his kingdom get along by making them give up their religious differences, similar to the way that secular forces have tried to unite the world by making us focus on pleasure, power, fame, and money instead of the important thing, which is God.
The Roman peace during Christ’s time was similar, but beguiling in a different way. Under the empire, other religions in the territories farther away from Rome were tolerated, as long as civil peace was kept and it didn’t try to topple the Roman religion. This situation lured the Pharisees into believing that they were free and were living in fulfillment of God’s promises, when in reality they were still slaves to sin. Across the board, however, the Roman peace reduced differences in religion to a matter of political and civil expedience instead of a reflection of the truth about God. The end result of that ideology is, “Civil peace is the highest good, and so while we would prefer common belief, we’ll let you have yours as long as you follow civil law…and keep the peace!” This also encourages the idea that the goal of all religions is actually the same – just to make people nice and again, to keep civil peace – so, it really doesn’t matter what religion you are.
And, in the end, if all that matters is civil peace, then you can have your beliefs, and I can have mine, and they can both be true even if they are inherently contradictory, because they are a matter of personal preference and not a matter of Truth. That notion is illogical and absurd and clearly betrays that both of these ideologies of peace, making idols of comfort, power, pleasure, money, and ease, are utterly false.
In contrast to all this, Our Lord says very clearly, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” These words are intense, and they mean very simply that your Christian belief is going to turn others against you, and so don’t be surprised when it happens, and don’t compromise your Christian faith because of the unbelief and rejection of God by others, even by those who are close to you. His words are a great mercy to us, because He gives us sufficient warning that must be prepared for these difficulties. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? What does it profit a man even to gain his whole earthly family, if it means that he still has to forfeit his soul? Remember the purported words of St. Thomas More to Richard Rich who betrayed him, when asked to sign the false oath of King Henry VIII in order to have fellowship with his friends. The saint chides Richard, “When you go to heaven for following your conscience, and I go to Hell for betraying mine, will you join me there, for fellowship’s sake?” We all know, my friends, that the only fellowship in Hell is with demons who hate us, and even if we did have fellowship with our earthly friends there, all the fellowship in Hell would not begin to make up for the loneliness and despair those souls experience because of the loss of Communion – Fellowship – with God.
It is important to note that we still see these two false ideologies of peace: the Greek peace of secularism and the Roman peace of feigned freedom, but only for the sake of keeping order in the empire. In reality, they are the same ideology – both use force to unite people under the common banner of something other than God Himself. There are many who, with John Lennon, would like to rid the world of religion and try to make everybody happy by getting rid of differences, because disagreeing with another means that you are, somehow, mean. Or something. And there are others, who for the sake of political expedience, prefer to live and let live: “You do you. I am not getting involved. Am I brother’s keeper?” We’ve heard that before!
So what are we to do? Remember first, that the One who said that He has come to bring not peace, but a sword, also said, “He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.” The rulers of a country, then, are like fathers of a large family, and they will answer to God for this responsibility. It is imperative for them to take appropriate, morally acceptable steps to defend and protect, keeping in mind that God does not desire the death of the sinner, but that he turn from his way and live. Was that not the call to us ourselves during Lent? In other words, war is always tragic, and we must not let our hearts be taken in by it, even and especially when it must be waged.
Second, recommit yourself to living, being, and spreading the Peace of Christ. He who commands the Apostles to go and preach Peace immediately gives the means by which they are to bestow it: the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of sins. You receive the Holy Spirit through the Sacraments, for which belief is a necessary precursor. And if you’ve ever lost sanctifying grace through mortal sin, you are restored through the Sacrament of Confession, which Christ institutes in today’s Gospel. All this is to say that true peace is Peace with Christ, between you and Christ, since He is the Creator, the Savior, the Conqueror of the World, and He knows what makes for peace.
You see, only belief in Christ has the possibility of bringing about true Peace in this world, and true Peace across the world. The Peace established in Him would NOT be simply a peace imposed by force, nor would it be the facile, superficial peace of a more-or-less common belief. Nor would it be the peace of slavery to idols of pleasure or power or material things in this world, since those idols inflame our passions which as St. James says, is the cause of war and strife. It would be the Peace of Charity, where we love God above all things, which makes our charity less selfish. And in that selfless charity, we would carry each other’s burdens, forgive as we have been forgiven, seek the good especially of the less fortunate; we would love our neighbor as ourselves. This is the mission of the Church for which Christ sends His Apostles…and us. The same Risen Christ comes to us now on the altar, in the Eucharist. He offers us His Peace, He dwells in our souls, and He sends us forth at the end of Mass with the words, “Go in peace!” When it is time, then, go, and bring the Peace that the world cannot give! And while we know that in the world we will have trouble – because many are enslaved to power and pleasure and comfort and money – Our Lord is clear: “Be of good cheer! I have conquered the world!”