{"id":32778,"date":"2018-01-23T18:08:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T00:08:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=32778"},"modified":"2018-01-25T18:04:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-26T00:04:39","slug":"finding-true-peace-in-our-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/finding-true-peace-in-our-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding True Peace in Our Times","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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Peace is not merely the absence of war…
\n Peace is “the tranquillity of order.”<\/strong><\/span>
\n \u2014Catechism of the Catholic Church,\u00a0<\/em>n. 2304<\/span><\/p>\n

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EVEN\u00a0<\/strong>now, even as time spins faster and faster and the pace of life demands more; even now as tensions between spouses and families increase; even now as cordial dialogue between individuals disintegrates and nations careen toward war… even now\u00a0we can find true peace.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But we must first understand what “true peace” is. French theologian, Fr. L\u00e9once de Grandmaison (d. 1927), put it quite beautifully:<\/p>\n

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The peace that the world offers us consists in the absence of physical suffering and in pleasures of various sorts. The peace that Jesus promises and gives to his friends is of another stamp. It consists not in an absence of suffering and anxiety but in the absence of interior discord, in the oneness of our spirit in relation to God, to ourselves, and to others.<\/strong> \u2014We and the Holy Spirit: Talks to Laymen, The Spiritual Writings of L\u00e9once de Grandmaison<\/em> (Fides Publishers); cf. Magnificat<\/em>, January 2018, p. 293<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is interior disorder<\/em> that robs the soul of true peace. And this disorder is the fruit of an unchecked will<\/em> and uncontrolled appetites<\/em>. This is why the wealthiest nations on earth have the most unhappy and restless inhabitants: many have everything, but yet, have nothing. True peace is not measured in what you possess, but in what possesses you.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither is it a matter of simply\u00a0not <\/em>having\u00a0<\/em>things. For as St. John of the Cross explains, “this lack will not divest the soul if it [still] craves for all these objects.” Rather, it is a matter of the denudation or stripping of the soul’s appetites and those gratifications that leave it insatiated and even more restless.<\/p>\n

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Since the things of the world cannot enter the soul, they are not in themselves an encumbrance or harm to it; rather, it is the will and appetite dwelling within that cause the damage when set on these things.<\/strong> \u2014The\u00a0Ascent of Mount Carmel,\u00a0<\/em>Book One, Chapter 4, n. 4;\u00a0The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross,\u00a0<\/em>p. 123; Tranlated by Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Redriguez<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But if one has these things, what then? The question, rather, is why do you have them in the first place? Do you drink several cups of coffee every day to wake up, or to comfort yourself? Do you eat to live, or live to eat? Do you make love to your spouse in a way that fosters communion or that merely takes gratification? God does not damn that which He has created nor does He condemn pleasure. What God has forbidden in the form of a commandment is turning pleasure or creatures into a god, into a little idol.<\/p>\n

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You shall not have other gods beside me. You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them. (Exodus 20:3-4)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Lord who created us out of love knows that He alone is the fulfillment of all desire. Everything He made is, at best, just a reflection of His goodness that points back to the Source. So to crave an object or another creature is to miss the goal and to become a slave to them.<\/p>\n

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For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. \u00a0(Gal 5:1)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is our appetites, and the restlessness they produce, that steal away true peace.<\/p>\n

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…freedom cannot abide in a heart dominated by desires, in a slave’s heart. It abides in a liberated heart, in a child’s heart.<\/strong> \u2014St. John of the Cross, Ibid. n.6, p. 126<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If you truly want (and who doesn’t?) that “peace which surpasses all understanding,”<\/em> it is necessary to smash these idols, to make them subservient to your will\u2014not the other way around.\u00a0This is what Jesus means when He says:<\/p>\n

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…whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:33)<\/span><\/p>\n

Jesus is demanding, because He wishes our genuine happiness.<\/b>\u00a0\u2014POPE JOHN PAUL II, World Youth Day Message for 2005, Vatican City, Aug. 27th, 2004, Zenit.org\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To enter into this self-denial is like a “dark night”, says John of the Cross, because one is depriving the senses of the “light” of touch, taste, seeing, etc. “Self-will”, wrote Servant of God Catherine Doherty, “is the obstacle that eternally stands between me and God.” [1]<\/sup><\/a>Poustinia,\u00a0<\/em>p. 142<\/span><\/span>