Only Christ gives us the real peace

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

LET’S be clear about this. Only in Christ can we have the real peace, one that can always be enjoyed despite the twists and turns of our earthly life, marked by a lot of challenges, trials, difficulties, failures, and a long etcetera of negative things.

“Peace be with you,” he told his disciples when he suddenly appeared before them after the two disciples whom Christ approached on their way to Emmaus, narrated to the others what happened during their journey. (cfr. Lk 24,35-48)

Of course, the disciples were startled and terrified. They thought they were seeing a ghost. That’s when Christ reassured them that it was truly him by showing the nail marks on his hands and feet.

This gospel episode simply tells us that Christ is truly God and is our savior. It validates everything that he said about who he was and is and about who we really are. And that he cares for us always. More than that he always gives us this gift of peace which is different from the peace that the world offers us. (cfr. Jn 14,27)

Of course, with that Christ-given peace comes joy also. The joy and peace that comes from God are always a fruit of a continuing spiritual battle to keep God’s love burning in us. It’s a joy and peace that is compatible with the cross. It is not afraid of suffering which also has an important role to play in our life and in the redemption of mankind.

It’s a joy and peace that comes as a consequence of faith and a growing identification we ought to develop with Christ who bore all the sins of men and the evils of this world and conquered them with his resurrection. In short, it’s a joy and peace that expresses guaranteed victory even if at the moment we are still fighting and suffering. It’s an all-weather kind of joy and peace.

If we would only believe this truth of faith about peace, then we somehow would know how to have peace in our mind and heart even if we have to go through the unavoidable battles and episodes of anger and agitation, of fears, worries and the like in our life.

The secret, of course, is to be with God, to identify ourselves with Christ, following his teachings and example. With Christ, we would know how to deal with all the elements of our life that are contrary to our dignity as children of God, and yet not eaten up by bitter zeal, anger, hatred and the like. In fact, we would know how to always live charity whose manifestation will include peace of mind and heart.

It’s important that we have peace in our mind and heart because that is the requirement for us to see things clearly and objectively, to make judgments fairly and to do things well. With peace, we can manage to be hopeful and happy even while still cruising in this vale of tears of ours.

Without peace, we can only manage the opposite. Our biases will dominate the way we perceive things, make judgments and do things in general. And our suffering continues and can worsen.

While peace is an effect of charity, it is also what keeps charity going. There is always an intimate mutual relationship between charity and peace. The more love for God and others we have, the more peace we will also enjoy. And vice-versa—the more peace we have, our love for God and others would also grow.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com