Why Is there Peace after the Forgiveness of Sins?
Peaceful souls are neither pessimists nor neurotics. They are not smug optimists, but have a wise and legitimate optimism, based on the heart of Jesus, for they know that nothing happens but what God wills, and that for the one who lives in faith, everything is foreseen by God, everything is for the best, everything is love. Mild temper, patience, goodness, and serenity grow only in peace.
Notice that it is not by keeping you away from temptations and struggles that our Lord will guard you. Saint Paul believed this when after he had been transported to the third heaven, an angel of Satan buffeted him in order that he might not take pride in himself so he prayed three times for deliverance. But Jesus answered him, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Elsewhere Saint Paul cries, “The good I want to do, I do not; but the evil that I don’t want to do, that I do. Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" And he was not delivered from it.
Remember that the grace of Jesus is sufficient for you and that it will never be lacking. It is so important to find calmness right away again after each fall! With one look toward him, say to him, "Jesus, one tear from your eyes, one drop of your blood on my soul, and everything will be purified and my soul will be in peace."
We know, says Saint Paul, that to those who love God, all things work together for good. "Even their sins," adds Saint Augustine. Trouble, sadness, and bitterness after a sin often come from offended self-love, from a lack of humility. We regret less the sin as such than the fact that it humiliates us. Peace does not necessarily mean sensible joy. But it is the happiness of him who knows he is where he ought to be and who asks for nothing but what he has, who is always joyous because Jesus, who is all his joy, is always with him.
Peace results from unconditional dedication to God.
Previously, we must enter a 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."
Without a determined effort to practice these virtues, there can be no true interior peace. For we would lack “the spirit of penance needed to live Christian perfection amid our everyday tasks."
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