LITURGY
LESSON: SIGN OF PEACE
(Given:
Sometimes when you bounce a ball in the house it
lands two or three different places and then disappears. The history of the Sign of Peace is very
similar. In the early Church it came
after the Liturgy of the Word. By the
fifth century in
It disappeared because, as we have said several
times in these Lessons, the Mass appeared to have become the private prayer of
the priest. .
Now the Church has restored the Sign of Peace to its position after the Our Father. Here is
what the Roman Missal says about its purpose
. . . before they share
in the same bread, the faithful implore peace and unity for the Church and for
the whole human family and offer some sign of their love for one another.[3]
Remember, Jesus said, “This is how all will know you for my
disciples; your love for one another.”[4] So the Church asks us to share a sign of that
love. True, we may not even know the
person near us, but that doesn’t matter. They are a brother or sister in Christ.
The Church very
deliberately doesn’t say how that sign of peace is to be exchanged. It is to be
exchanged “in accord with the culture and customs of the people,”[5] “Neither specific form nor specific words are
determined.”[6] It could be a hand shake, an embrace, a
kiss.” The point is that we are
brothers and sisters in Christ, and before we share Holy Communion we share a
simple sign of our love for one another.