And repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. Today’s Gospel proclaims.
   Jesus is the Prince of Peace, as the prophet Isaiah named him. “Peace I leave with you; peace is my farewell gift to you” there is no real peace outside of God’s will. 
   The world seeks its own peace apart from God, and it remains deeply troubled. For example, in the Middle East wishing each other “peace” is the normal form of greeting: shalom in Hebrew, and as-salaam 'alaykum in Arabic. The holy city of Jerusalem itself means “Foundation of Peace,” Yarah-Shalom. But ironically, I would say scandalously, the least peaceful place on the planet has been the Middle East, precisely where God came to earth and offered mankind his peace. Our nation’s most violent day, September 11, 2001, reflected this never-ending conflict.
   Jerusalem continues to refuse God’s word, to refuse his prophets, to refuse his Christ, and we are all of us citizens of that City—the City of Man that struggles to become the City of God. “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.” 
   As America draws farther from God’s law, violence will increase as society unravels. Our country is choosing to forget the words of her own Declaration of Independence, which states that “the law of nature and nature’s God” is the basis for every freedom. Sixty years ago we accepted contraception, and fifty years ago we legalized abortion, and forty years ago we granted divorce, and thirty years ago we exalted single parenthood, and four years ago we began giving spontaneous, non-liturgical pastoral blessings to same-sex and "irregular" couples as “a couple”. 
   Solzhenitsyn famously said that the line separating good and evil passes not through political parties but right through every human heart.  Our mission is to bring Christ’s peace to the world by bringing his truth;  and obedience to that truth. This will not be a peaceful task, either personally or publicly in a culture maniacally bent on attaining a worldly peace apart from God. We will have to wield the sword of division at times, even within your own family, even against ourselves. But we wield this sword always with charity, and with the goal of reconciliation and sanctification. St. John portrays the New Jerusalem at the end of the Book of Revelation. That City needs no sun for light, nor temple for worship, for the Lamb is its light and its temple. It is of that city that we must be citizens. 
   Let us ask Our Lady to help us be good soldiers and good citizens of the New Jerusalem, the true City of Peace. In this month of May, let us dedicate ourselves to praying the rosary for true peace, the fruit of saying yes to God’s perfect will.