Jesus then says to me, and for me:
“The greeting you like so much, my greeting - ‘Peace be with you’ - should be used by you as the only greeting for everyone. Even if it were my Vicar, you should greet him as I greeted and taught others to greet.
“Isn’t Peace God Himself? Isn’t Peace, which we recognize to be the loveliest of things, to praise God by praising it?
“Say, then, ‘Peace be with you.’ Don’t say lei or voi, but te.772 And if you should happen to enter a house, say, ‘Peace be in this house.’ There is no greeting which is broader, sweeter, holier, or more mindful of Me than this one.
“Good-bye. Peace be with you.”
771 This entry is preceded by the episode involving “The Healing of Simon Peter’s Mother-inLaw,” found in the cycle on The First Year of the Public Life.
772 We have kept the Italian pronouns used in the original - untranslatable into current English - because the meaning is that the pronouns conveying respect and formality in the mode of addressing someone (lei and voi) are to be avoided, in favor of the one conveying proximity and intimacy: te.