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Peace be with you! (John 20:27)

The more often you hear these words, the more you may be surprised that they do not express an incontrovertible truth, but a possibility. Why did Christ never say: “Peace is with you”—not even to doubting Thomas, who was allowed to touch him? And why do we never hear at the altar: “Peace is with you”—whereas He is giving it to us? Does this mean that we have to make this possibility a reality?

What do we do with the soft touch of Peace that we receive at the altar? What does this touch bring about?

Peace is a mood that wants to reach further than a feeling of rest and harmony. It wants to be part of our voice, our gestures, even our feet. Are our feet—speaking with Paul—“…shoed with preparedness to spread the message of peace…?” (Ephesians 6:15)

With our feet we walk the path of our life. Semiconsciously and consciously we leave our traces. Only when we walk with Christ and He with us, do our feet begin to spread the message of His Peace. His Peace is not only meant for me, not only for my destiny, but also for everyone’s destiny. This Peace wants to go into the world in us, through us, to save what can be saved. For, Peace in the world is inconceivable. But walking the still, narrow path of Peace—this creates in a torn world an indelible track.

– Rev. Bastiaan Baan, April 27, 2025

May 1, 2025/0 Comments/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies

Easter

Never to die anymore—that might well be the worst that could ever happen to a human being. If that ever came to pass, a human life would never be able to renew itself. When a life is fulfilled, death comes as a liberator. When you are weak and infirm, when the burden of the years and cares becomes unbearable, death is the greatest benefactor who bestows another form of life on us.

Finally, the dying person is redeemed from suffering, freed out of the prison of the body. Sometimes this liberation shows itself even visibly. After the death throes the deceased leaves its traces on the face—an expression of rest and nobility that you don’t find anywhere but in death. Finally freed from the burden of life.

When Christ died, something else happened—completely different from the death of every human being. Long before His death on the cross, He announced His path already with the prediction: “The Son of Man will be for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” The heart of the earth has a sting, which is death. Its lord and master? It is the prince of darkness.

Christ did not wage the worst battle on the earth, but in the heart of the earth—to vanquish death from the inside, to heal the heart of the earth.

Since His death, each human being who seeks Him can die differently—no longer imprisoned in the heart of the earth, but secure in the heart of Christ, where each who has sought Him has a home.

Christ was not committed to the earth like mortal remains. He laid Himself into the earth to renew His creation—as a seed that lets blossom the whole earth.

Rev. Bastiaan Baan, Easter 2025

April 22, 2025/0 Comments/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies

Judas and Mary Magdalene

In the middle of Holy Week, money has the leading part, both in the anointing Mary Magdalene performs and in the deed of Judas. In both cases, money is the instrument of the opponent who wants to break Jesus’ power. When the woman anoints Jesus’ head with oil, the disciples are indignant because of the waste of so much money. They are blind to the meaning of His consecration to death. The only thing that counts is money.

When Judas betrays his master, the chief priests offer him the paltry amount of thirty pieces of silver for his capture. That is how slaves were traded in those days. But usually, when someone sold a slave, the price was mentioned by the slave trader. Then they haggled, until the trade was made. Now the roles are reversed: a human being (Ecce homo—See, the human being) is sold for what the buyer offers. There is no haggling at all. In the eyes of the chief priests, Jesus is less than a slave.

With all these humiliating actions you can become desperate about the power of money and the shortsightedness of people. But Jesus sees beyond their shortsightedness.

Even when evil works openly, when Satan takes possession of Judas, even when evil triumphs—even then it is no more than a tool of the power that prevails.

That’s how it went when the decision about the lot of Jesus was made. There was no escaping it. But on the way that is waiting for Him, Jesus is much more than just a victim.

Church Father Augustine tried to put himself in Jesus’ state of mind from that moment. He put the words in His mouth: “I suffer not for my sins, but when I die I fulfill the will of my Father. Then I DO more than I SUFFER.”

What from the human point of view is the deepest suffering, is from the divine point of view the highest form of strength. Golgotha is at the same time the deepest tragedy and the greatest deed. In the words of archangel Michael that sound in the fall in the epistle at the altar: “The deed that created life out of death on Golgotha.”

Rev. Bastiaan Baan, April 18, 2025

April 21, 2025/1 Comment/by CCNA

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