Achieving Peace

12 May 2007: 6^th Sunday in Ordinary Time
John 14, 27-31 Achieving Peace

Many people nowadays seek for peace. When our hearts are troubled or conflicted whether the source comes from our personal lives, families, work, and school, we are not at peace. When our minds are confused and uncertain, we become restless.

The Gospel today tells us that Jesus leaves us with peace and gives us the Spirit of peace. Thus, in order to be at peace, we must have the Holy Spirit in us. When our hearts are aligned to the heart of God, then we become at peace. When we become attune with the Spirit of God, when our plans and our decisions are aligned with God, we become peaceful and deeply contented.

Moreover, the peacefulness we seek is also within us. When there is no congruence between our inner and external self, we will not be at peace. When we have not accepted some parts of ourselves and our past, then we will not be serene.

Anne Morrow Lindberg said in her book, Gift from the Sea, “I want first of all --- in fact, as an end to these other desires --- to be at peace with myself. I want a singleness of eye, a purity of intention, a central core to my life that will enable me to carry out these obligations and activities as well as I can. I want, in fact --- to borrow from the language of the saints --- to live ‘in grace’ as much of the time as possible. I’m not using this terms in a strictly theological sense. By grace, I mean inner harmony, essentially spiritual, which can be translated into outward harmony. I’m seeking what Socrates asked for in the prayer from the Phaedrus when he said, “May the outward and the inward man be as one.” I would like to achieve a state of inner spiritual grace from which I could function and give as I was meant to in the eye of God.”

The Spirit of Peace is the Spirit of Truth. We will not be at peace when there are lies and deceptions in our hearts. Only when we become honest with ourselves and with others, can peace be ours.

And so we ask ourselves: Are we at peace? Is our inner self and outer self one? Are there aspects in our lives that needs acceptance?