12 days ‒ Emptying oneself of the spirit of the world - Day 11
Blessed are the peacemakers
Prayer to the Holy Spirit
O Holy Spirit, inspire me. God’s love, engulf me. Holy Mary, my Mother, guide me in the right ways, look at me, and together with Jesus, bless me. Keep me from all evil, from all delusions and all threats. Mary, The Spouse of the Holy Spirit, obtain for me the grace of making God’s peace. Amen!
The Word of God
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:9).
Meditation
The loss of peace resulted from sin that poisoned the human heart. After people succumbed to temptation and questioned God’s goodness, they began to experience anxiety and fear and started to blame. This poison changed people’s idea of God, who used to be someone close, and then they felt they needed to hide from Him. Before, the fellow human was also someone close and supportive; after, they became someone to be blamed. The Holy Bible says that “it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks” (Lk 6:45), and when we look at the words that people uttered after being infected by sin, we will see how the spiritual atmosphere in their hearts severely changed.
The world, indeed, lies in the power of evil, and this world cannot give us the peace we are created for. Every human has this desire for peace. Without it, nobody feels comfortable. Once we understand that anxiety is a consequence of sin, we will see that happiness doesn’t work like that. Yet, anxiety may be, in fact, good because it may lead to the situation when we feel this inner desire to experience peace. In the Old Testament, peace was a state that people could be in. It was not only harmony among people, mutual trust, rest, having fertile land, food, and living without fear in a safe place. Only when the external circumstances are consistent with an internal sense of comfort can it be called peace. But the question is whether we can live our lives so that we will always be in such external circumstances. After all, we have no control over so many matters. So what does living in peace consist of?
We find the answer in Jesus. In the Letter to Ephesians, we read that “he is our peace” (Eph 2:14). It means that we just need to change our thinking about peace. Peace is not only an internal state of a man. Peace is a man. Peace has the name of Jesus. Even in the Book of Isiah, we hear the prophecy: “His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace” (Isiah 9:7). Peace is the result of Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is the awareness that He conquered all evil at the cross and comes to us like to the Apostles, saying, “Peace to you!,” i.e., I am giving peace to you, meaning I am giving to you myself and my victory. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God”—it means blessed those who bring my presence and my victory to the world they live in. Jesus brought peace, i.e., Himself, and this is how being the children of God reveals. Children of God are those who are to proclaim the victory of the Lord. The Apostles were called peacemakers. Jesus, who is peace, gives us peace, gives us Himself. I don’t need to worry because Jesus triumphed. Peace is a gift of Jesus, not a result of human efforts. Humanly, we are unable to make peace in our relations. 66 EMPTYING ONESELF OF THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD We can ask for it. We cannot give what we don’t have within us. Jesus’ presence is a source of peace. If I go with Jesus through the situations that previously worried me, the Lord will change my thinking and view of this situation. A change of perspective will allow me to discover that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7). The peace of God surpasses all understanding. God wants to give us answers in many situations we don’t understand. Yet on a slightly different level. Before, we talked about the question of “why” that arises in such situations. Here, we see that God wants to answer us on a different level. Not in our minds but in a way that surpasses every mind and every understanding. God answers with peace. And even though we don’t understand, we are at peace because we know that the Lord triumphed.
Making peace means going together with Jesus through situations I don’t understand.
Mary’s peace in Magnificat: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matt 5:9). This blessing tells in the first place about her. She became the first daughter of God because she brought Jesus to the world, who is peace. God is the one who gives peace. “…he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Lk 1:53). He answers the ones who are hungry for His love and deprives of illusion and lies those who strayed, succumbing to the spirit of the world and false belief of their self-sufficiency. The former are comforted, the latter cleansed. Eventually, good God is behind both comforting and cleansing graces. In Mary’s life, since the annunciation, there have been situations she didn’t understand. The peace in her heart resulted from her belief in God’s victory.
The struggle of standing up to evil: what does it consist in? Holding my peace means staying connected with Jesus when something I don’t understand is happening. This is done through a conscious decision not to give our anxieties priority over the relationship with Jesus. For doesn’t God see it? Doesn’t He con- D 11 67 trol it? Did it get out of His hand? This kind of thinking leads to trust and peace. Even if we don’t understand and have no influence over what is happening, we may bring peace, that is, Jesus’ presence, into every situation we experience.
Spiritual reading
“Eternal Wisdom, besides being the object of the eternal Father’s delight, and the joy of angels (cf. Nos. 10,19,55), is also the source of purest joy and consolation for man who possesses him. He gives to man a relish for everything that comes from God and makes him lose his taste for things created. He enlightens his mind with the brightness of his own light and pours into his heart an indescribable joy, sweetness and peace even when he is in the midst of the most harrowing grief and suffering, as St Paul bears witness when he exclaims, ‘I exceedingly abound with joy in all our tribulations’” (2 Cor. 7:4).
St. Louis de Montfort, The Love of Eternal Wisdom, 98
“The kingdom of God is within you, says the Lord. Turn, then, to God with all your heart. Forsake this wretched world and your soul shall find rest. Learn to despise external things, to devote yourself to those that are within, and you will see the kingdom of God come unto you, that kingdom which is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, gifts not given to the impious.
Christ will come to you offering His consolation, if you prepare a fit dwelling for Him in your heart, whose beauty and glory, wherein He takes delight, are all from within. His visits with the inward man are frequent, His communion sweet and full of consolation, His peace great, and His intimacy wonderful indeed.”
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, Book II, chapter 1, 1
Homework
I will ask Mary to teach me to go through all the situations in my life together with the Lord.
Prayer of consecration
I am all Yours, and all that I have is Yours, O most loving Christ, through Mary, Your most holy Mother. Amen!