Interior Peace

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins, and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

We're told in the letter of Saint Peter, “But according to his promise, we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. Therefore beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by him without spot or blemish and at peace” (2 Pet. 3:13–14).

At this conclusion of a passage evoking the coming of the day of the Lord at the end of time, using traditional imagery of the apocalypse, it’s remarkable that St. Peter calls on us to find ourselves at peace on this day. Not in anguish or fear, but at peace.

We don’t have to speculate on the end of time. Only the Father knows the day and the hour. But it seems there’s a fundamental lesson here for today. The more the church and the world run towards its arrival, and the more creation cries out in the sorrow of giving birth, the more the Christian is called to be in peace.

The more the world goes through crisis, the more society is marked by tensions and insecurities, the more necessary it is to find true peace and to let ourselves go in the profound peace of Christ. Therein lies a certain spiritual urgency.

The more the church marches on through history, the more she’s called to live each of the beatitudes, but especially the seventh. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9). Sometimes we hear about United Nations peacekeepers. But Christ calls us to be not just peacekeepers, but peacemakers.

So there’s a very strong call to let ourselves find peace in Christ, to welcome God’s peace in our hearts. Have we go as far as to say that the first duty of a Christian isn’t to be perfect, but to resolve all one’s problems, but to be in peace?

One writer says, ultimately, we have just one duty, to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, she says, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.

If my heart is not at peace, I will be vulnerable to the full force of those divisions, those spirals of fear and violence that agitate the world. Everything that isn’t peaceful in me gives rise to evil. It’s like an open door for demons, for forces of division that want to drag the world down to its ruin.

This was shown all too often in the course of the 20th century. That century saw many people, whether in Europe or in Rwanda, even those calling themselves Christians, sometimes very involved in the church, drawn to commit acts of violence or cowardice of which they would never have thought themselves capable.

The underlying reason is that when the human heart is not really made peaceful by God, when it is still inhabited by fears and defense mechanisms, when we’re still immersed in surroundings where evil is unleashed, where violence, hate, and partisan attitudes are spreading, and social pressure grows ever stronger and stronger, we become incapable of resisting, and let ourselves be led into committing evil.

At certain historical junctures, good morals no longer suffice. We must therefore keep ourselves ready, as Our Lord says in the gospel, because we know neither the day nor the hour. An essential aspect of this spiritual vigilance is to guard over our hearts and then learn to remain in God’s peace, whatever happens.

Peacemakers come seventh among the beatitudes in St. Matthew’s Gospel. The number seven indicates completion, fullness, crowning. The person envisaged by the beatitude resounds with peace.

In the Latin liturgy, the word peace is found seven times between the Our Father and the communion. The Eucharist is the heart’s purification, placed par excellence, a repose in God.

If we take the path of the beatitudes, each of them, an expression of spiritual poverty, whether by docility, affliction, hunger and thirst for justice, mercy, or purity of heart, the fruit attained is peace of heart, which permits us to become peacemakers for those around us and truly to merit the title of children of God. Only the acquisition of this peace permits us to live the eighth beatitude, to accept persecution joyfully and not as a disgrace.

Acquiring peace, even if it takes a lot of work, is more about welcoming a promise than an ascetic exercise. Our Lord’s long discourse in the Gospel of John after the Last Supper is very significant in this regard. It begins at the start of chapter 14, saying, “Let not your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1).

A little bit later, Our Lord says, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

The peace promised by Our Lord is not that of the world, the tranquility when all goes well, when problems are resolved, and desires satisfied. A peace that is after all rather rare. Rather, the peace Our Lord promises us can be received and experienced even in situations that are catastrophic by human standards. Because its source and foundation is in God.

At the end of chapter 16 of that Gospel, just before the priestly prayer to the Father, Our Lord’s last words to his disciples are, “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

It seems as if the ultimate goal of all of Our Lord’s words, his spiritual testament, was to establish peace in the believer. Our peace doesn’t come from the world, from exterior circumstances. It comes from our communion in faith and love with Jesus, the Prince of peace. It is the fruit of prayer.

God is an ocean of peace. And each time we are in intimate union with him through prayer, our hearts find peace again. Pope Benedict liked to say that peace is another word, another name for God. Sometimes praying until peace comes back is an urgent duty.

The experience of prayer as a place of peace is one of the criteria of authentic discernment in our prayer life. It doesn’t matter if our prayer seems arid. If it brings us the fruit of peace, it will cease to have this effect and will become a place to pose questions.

One of the beautiful scripture texts showing this peace promise, there are many, occurs in the letter to the Philippians, where St. Paul says, “The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:5–7).

The quest for interior peace is much more than the search for peace of mind. It really is about something else. Opening ourselves up to God’s actions.

It’s important to understand a simple but spiritually important truth. The more we reach out towards peace, the more the grace of God is capable of acting in our lives. Like a tranquil lake perfectly reflects the sun, so is a peaceful heart receptive to the action and movement of the Spirit.

One writer says the devil is ever solicitous to banish peace from your mind, knowing well that God only dwells where there is peace, and that it is in peace that he works his wonders. St. Francis de Sales said the same thing to one of his followers in a letter of spiritual direction, urging her to keep a tranquil heart.

Only a peaceful heart is capable of truly loving, remaining calm in the face of trouble, uneasiness, and interior disturbances, is necessary for God to act in our lives. We can still grow in love, and our lives can have the fruitfulness we are called to have, if we accomplish this inward peace.

We could add that the only time we have good discernment is when we are at peace. When we’re preoccupied by worry, disturbed by events in our lives, our emotions can get the best of us, and we don’t have an objective grasp on reality. We’re tempted to see everything in black and white and question everything in our life. On the other hand, when we’re at peace, we see life clearly.

St. Ignatius understood this, distinguishing periods of consolation and desolation in the spiritual life. He recommends not to make any life-changing decisions in the latter case, but encourages us to remain faithful to what we determined during the last peaceful period.

Therefore, we should adopt the following rule of conduct. When a problem has robbed us of our peace, the most important thing is not to resolve the problem with the hope of regaining our peace, but to regain a minimum of peacefulness, and then to see what we can do to face the problem. We will avoid making irrational choices for all the wrong reasons.

How do we get back this minimum level of peace? Essentially through prayer, listening to the word, and believing that God will never abandon us.

Besides those timely actions required in the troubled moments just mentioned, acquiring interior peace also requires that we devote ourselves to a deeper effort that ultimately sums up the whole Christian life. It is to know everything not at peace within us, and being open to grace to discern a path of simultaneous healing and conversion, allowing us to be less and less the playthings of exterior circumstances, or of our own wounds, and find greater stability in God. Here we have a vast field of work.

It’s interesting that the word peace in Hebrew tradition, besides its meaning signifies the opposite of war, also indicates achievement, fullness, abundance. Being at peace means being able to say with the Psalmist, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” (Ps. 23:1).

Here then, the opposite of peace is want, frustration, emptiness, dissatisfaction. The two meanings are linked. Most of the time, it’s our wants and frustrations that nourish conflict with others. We can’t put up with them because we can’t put up with ourselves.

Nothing is as opposed to peace in the biblical sense as an interior void, the dissatisfaction arising from a life without meaning. Mankind is called to happiness, destined for fullness, made to be whole. The sense of emptiness is intolerable.

In today’s world, it’s easy to see how a spiritual void can be destructive. It engenders violence or depression, or even a frenetic quest to fill the void. Modern man is menaced more than ever by a whole series of addictive behaviors, alcohol, drugs, the internet, food, which generally begin with an illusory attempt to fill a want.

We can notice too that if peace is opposed to conflict, then not all wars are overt wars involving manifest violence or aggression. Besides these offensive wars, there are also defensive wars waged with weapons like fearful conduct, turning in on oneself, efforts to control everything, and the raising of barriers to protect oneself, others, our life itself. This is also the opposite of biblical peace.

Thus the acquisition of true interior peace must be accompanied by self-awareness and an openness to divine grace in relation to all the attitudes and conduct, more or less conscious, that we’ve mentioned here.

We must face up to our aggressions, our angers, our hatred and our bitterness, but also to our frustrations, dissatisfactions, fears, denial or defense mechanisms, and refusals to live. For these are expressions of a lack of peace and nourish the conflicts in which we all too often find ourselves enmeshed.

Schematically, we can distinguish four domains in which a lack of peace manifests itself. Relationship with God. To be at peace with God shows an attitude of availability, of confidence, of gratitude. Sometimes we can flee him, close ourselves up, mistrust him. We can blame him for some suffering we’ve lived through, such as a trial we’ve undergone or a seemingly sterile faithfulness. We can feel unworthy or culpable before him.

Not accepting ourselves as we are is a frequent experience. Judging ourselves, detesting ourselves, being perpetually discontent with ourselves. Lack of peace in relationships with others is evidenced by fears and barriers, and also bitterness, grudges, and forgiveness spurned. And also perhaps lack of peace in our relationship with existence, with life.

All this is to say that the acquisition of interior peace presupposes a lengthy work of reconciliation, reconciliation with God, with ourselves and our weakness, with our neighbor, with life. Though a laborious task which demands patience and perseverance, it is eminently possible, since it is exactly for this work of reconciliation that Christ was given to us. In that he came to make peace through the blood of the cross.

Reconciling mankind with God, by showing us the true image of the Father, he reconciles human beings little by little with themselves, with their neighbors, and with life itself. Only Christ is our peace. Just as St. Paul affirms in the letter to the Ephesians, because we have in Christ access in one Spirit to the Father.

If we want to be open to the grace of the Holy Spirit, we must struggle and so far as it depends on us, to preserve our interior peace. So we’re told, strive to preserve your heart in peace. Let no event of this world disturb it. Reflect that all must come to an end. Take neither great nor little notice of who is with you or against you, and try always to please God. The Psalm says, “I have calmed and quieted my soul” (Ps. 131:2).

The more our hearts are peaceful and untroubled, the more they can receive the movement, light, and help of the Holy Spirit. On the contrary, worry, agitation, and anxiety close us off from grace. “In returning and rest, you shall be saved. In quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isa. 30:15), says the Prophet Isaiah.

We could also keep in mind that only when we are in a state of grace, do we have good discernment. Only then do we see clearly in the various situations that confront us and find the right remedies for our problems. Tempestuous times, periods of trouble and worry are bound to come, but our perception of reality is so distorted by negative emotions that we must wait for peace to return before changing any fundamental resolution.

One writer says, be faithful in keeping your interior peace, because once we’ve lost it, we don’t see a thing. We don’t know where we’re going.

Another important condition for receiving the Holy Spirit is to live in the present moment. The more we are in the present, neither looking back nor anticipating what is to come, the more we are in touch with the real, with God, with interior resources that empower us to face up to living in the here and now. And the more receptive we are to the work of grace.

Sterile regrets, rumination on the past, and worries about the future all cut us off from divine grace. If we entrust the past to the mercy of God, and trust the future to his providence, doing just what is required of us today, so much the more we dispose ourselves to receive the grace we need day by day.

Flexibility and detachment are necessary parts of letting the Spirit act in us, by keeping our hearts free and clear from everything. If we are too attached to our plans, our way of seeing things, our own wisdom, we don’t leave a place for the Spirit. One writer said, I’m always ready five minutes from now to do the exact opposite of what I had planned.

Obviously, we must have plans and undertake projects, but with total detachment. Our heart must not be enslaved by anything. When you form some desire, it should not be such as to cause you pain in the case of failure. But you should keep your spirit as tranquil as though you had never wished for anything. This detachment opens us wide to the Spirit’s movements.

Gratitude is also another very powerful attitude for attracting the grace of the Holy Spirit. St. Thérèse of Lisieux said it is the spirit of gratitude which draws down upon us the overflow of God’s grace. For no sooner have we thanked him for one blessing, than he hastens to send us ten additional favors in return. Then when we show our gratitude for these new gifts, he multiplies his benedictions to such a degree that there seems to be a constant stream of divine grace ever coming our way.

For all that Our Lord is constantly giving me, my gratitude is boundless. And I try to prove it to him in a thousand different ways.

Under its light and humorous surface, this text of hers contains a very profound truth. Gratitude opens us to the gifts of grace. Not that it makes God more generous, for he is fully so, but it makes us more open and receptive to his love. It distracts us from ourselves in order to turn us entirely towards him.

Gratitude is very fruitful because it is a sign that we have fully understood and welcomed the love of God. And it puts us in a position to receive even more. We’re told in St. Matthew, “For to him who has, will more be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away” (Matt. 13:12).

Therefore love is drawn to love. Gratitude is an extremely efficacious attitude of receptivity. While ingratitude, complaint, jealousy, and defensiveness close our hearts and deprive us of God’s gifts.

St. Bernard expresses this in a commentary on the gospel story of the lepers. All were healed by Jesus, but only one, a Samaritan, came back to give him thanks. Happy is the one who returns each gift of grace to him, in whom is the fullness of grace. So long as we do not betray ourselves as ungrateful to God for what we have received, we make a space for grace within us, so that we merit to receive still more.

Surely our ingratitude alone impedes us from progress in our conversion, since the giver supposes that what he gives is in a sense lost if it is received ungratefully. So he is cautious about giving more, as the more he can confer to the ungrateful, the more he loses. Hence, he who considers himself to be a foreigner is happy, for he responds even to small kindnesses with large gratitude.

Another writer says, I beg of you, my child, to spend all your life in love of humble acknowledgment, in thanking God, in praising him and blessing him for all his blessings. It is a holy practice and one which has led me to growth in grace and to marvels without equal. In thanking Our Lord, you draw to yourself new blessings.

If we try day by day to act as we’ve described, we will surely be open to the Spirit and he can work in us. This doesn’t mean we’ll always feel his presence and his actions, for those things are sometimes hidden. But the fruits will come little by little. It’s not a matter of doing everything said here perfectly, but of persevering with good will and without discouragement in this direction.

The manner that we have described of behaving is characteristic of Our Lady. Our Lady never ceased practicing in a perfect way each of those points. Prayer, trust, humility, obedience, peace, detachment, living in the present moment, gratitude.

The ultimate secret for receiving the abundance of the Spirit is to entrust ourselves totally to Our Lady, so that she will teach us her interior disposition, keep us faithful with every day of our lives, and pray for what we’re lacking. The closer we are to Our Lady, the more we receive the Holy Spirit.

Each of the attitudes above also expresses the gift of faith. Prayer is obviously an act of faith. Trust is also derived from faith. Humility, acceptance of our littleness, is an act of faith. I can accept myself in my littleness because I place all my faith in God, and hope for everything from his mercy.

Obedience is also an expression of faith in the goodness of God and his faithfulness. Peace is founded on faith. How can we be at peace in an uncertain world if not because we put all our faith in the victory of Christ? Living in the present moment is also an act of faith. I give back to God my past and my future, and I believe that he is with me today.

Detachment is an act of faith in the same way. I can be free and detached while facing everything in this world, because I know that God’s love is the essential good that will never fail me. And as for gratitude, it’s also an expression of faith in the bounty and the faithfulness of Our Lord.

Thus, the greatness of Mary is the greatness of her faith. She was filled with the Spirit because of her faith. And the thing she most desires to communicate to us is precisely the force of her faith. It is by faith that every grace, every gift of the Spirit, every divine blessing comes to us. As St. Paul ceaselessly affirms, faith is the essence of our capacity to receive the free gift of God. And here we see why Jesus insists so much on this point in the gospel. He says in St. Luke, “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25).

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and Lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

EW

From  Searching for and Maintaining Peace, Chapter 2, Jacques Philippe (2002)