"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives."

This is the first time in the gospel of John that Jesus speaks of peace.  He only mentions it once again before his resurrection, when he offers it three times to the disciples.  In John 16.33 he says "I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace.  In the world you face persecution."  So the only two times in the gospel of John where Jesus speaks of peace he speaks of the world's contradiction of it directly afterward.

"My peace is my gift to you," but I do not give as the world gives - to only the few - but I give to everyone.  I do not give and then take away, as the world does, but "the water that I will give will become in you a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." (John 4.14)

Why do so few in our day seem to be missing peace?  Many love the world.  "The love of the Father is not in those who love the world." (1 John 2.15)  Many strive to obtain peace for themselves, through their own spiritual practices or through practicing justice.  Peace is Christ's gift, it is his alone to give.  We must return today to simplicity and great humility so that our hearts may be open to receive it.  It follows that we must pray.  Some believe that peace is the absence of persecution.  But in one of the only two places where Christ speaks of peace he says "in the world you face persecution."  Nor is peace the absence of our own failings and shortcomings.  What sort of peace would that be for us weak creature?  Jesus tells his disciples "you will abandon me, although I am never alone...I tell you this so that in me you may have peace." (John 16.33)  Even after what would seem in purely human terms an almost unforgivable act of abandoning the Christ, Jesus wants to assure them of his peace for them.

The peace of Christ, how he gives it and, logically following, how we are to receive it, is fruit for life-long meditation.