Nov 12 Tue
Does unconditional dedication to God bring peace?
St Paul lists among the fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace... Joy and peace, he teaches, always go together. They stem from charity, which unites us to God and leads us to rest in him, in the joy of having found him. Therefore, joy and peace are a consequence of our dedication, of being and living as people in love.
St. Josemaría taught us to ask daily for ‘gaudium cum pace,’ the joy and peace Christ won for us by his redemptive Incarnation. “Let us take a look at this Lord of ours who came to bring peace on earth to men of goodwill. Not just to the rich, nor just to the poor –which is a way of viewing things that does a lot of harm– but rather to all our brothers and sisters! We are brothers and sisters of God, since we are brothers and sisters of Christ, children of our Blessed Mother. There is only one race: the race of the children of God. There is only one color: the color of the children of God. And there is only one language: the one spoken in our hearts and minds, the one you are using now to Jesus, the language of contemplative souls. A language that is not spoken aloud, but involves countless acts of the will: it brings clarity to the mind, affections to the heart, and decisions for an upright life, for goodness, light and peace."
Our joy with peace, comes from our union with God. Two things I ask of God, St John Chrysostom comments: that you live in him and for him. In him, since nothing is firm and sure without his grace. For him, since nothing in this world is of any benefit to us if we do not direct it to God.
But if constant union with God were missing, if we didn't allow ourselves to be led by the Holy Spirit, we would never find peace or joy. For we would fall prey to the vices of the flesh which St Paul lists, and which St Augustine defines as everything that stems from a disordered love of self.
Still, struggle is needed to secure peace.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you, our Lord said. At the same time, he reminded us that this peace has to be won: Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
War, in the first place, against ourselves: against the pride and disordered self-love that rob us of peace. Each of us must struggle “to attain complete unity between our faith, morals, and deeds. Then, come what may, you'll have joy with peace, a serenity that will lead you to work ...It will lead you to order, obedience, poverty, chastity, loyalty, and to get the necessary rest, all in Christ's charity."
There can be no true interior peace without a determined effort to practice these virtues. For we would lack the spirit of penance needed to live Christian perfection ‘cum gaudio et pace’ amid our everyday tasks.