XVIII. The Peace of Christ

Summary. — The gift of peace to souls sums up all Christ’s work in regard to us ; peace also sums up the harmony of the monastic life. — I. Peace is the tranquillity of order. — II. How we are to conform to the Divine order. — Ilf. The peace that the soul finds in God is unchanging. — IV. St. Benedict has ordained everything in his Rule towards the finding of this peace.

In all the preceding conferences, I have sought but one thing : to place the Divine figure of Christ Jesus before your eyes, that contemplating this unique Ideal you may love and imitate It. This is in fact the whole of monasticism, as it is the very substance of Christianity. The integral seeking after God, the entire gift of self, poverty, humility, obedience, abandonment to the Divine will, the spirit of religion towards our Heavenly Father, charity and good zeal towards our neighbour, all these virtues which, if carried to a certain degree of perfection are characteristic of the religious life, have their first Exemplar in Jesus.

The one aim of monastic life is to make us perfect disciples of Christ ; we are truly monks only on condition that we are first of all Christians. Our holy Patriarch wrote his Rule only as an abridgment of the Gospel ; this is why, in ending as in beginning the code destined for his sons, he tells them nothing else than “ to follow Christ 2 ” ; “ That they should prefer absolutely nothing before Christ Who will bring us to everlasting life ” : Christo omnino nihil praeponant, qui nos pariter ad vitam aeternam perducat 3. It is with these words that the holy Legislator takes leave of us in the last chapter.

Now when we seek to sum up the whole of Christ’s work, to see in brief the extent of His mystery, what do we find to say ? Is there one word in which can be gathered up the whole substance of the mystery of the Man-God ? Yes, there is such a word. i. " And let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts. ” 2. Prologue of the Rule. — 3. Rule, ch. lxxii.

Col. hi, 15. —

When Christ appeared upon earth, after thousands of years of waiting and anguish, what was the first message that fell from heaven, the message wherein man could discov¬ er in advance the secret of the ineffable mystery of the Word Incarnate, and, as it were, the plan of all the work of Jesus ? It was the message brought by the angels sent by God Himself to announce to the world the good tidings of the Birth of His Son : “ Glory be to God in the highest ; and on earth peace to men of good will ! ” 1 The Word becomes incarnate to give all glory to His Father, and bring peace to the world. To seek His Father’s glory is the supreme aspiration of Christ’s Heart in regard to Him by Whom He is sent, and of Whom He is the Beloved Son ; the gift of peace condenses in itself every good which the Saviour brings to the souls He comes to redeem.

Christ's life upon earth has but this one aim. When that is attained, He looks upon His work as finished. In the presence and hearing of His Apostles, He says in that wonderful prayer to His Father when about to consummate His life by His sacrifice : “ I have glorified Thee on the earth ; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do ” : Ego te clarificavi super terrain; opus consummavi quod dedisti mihi ut faciam 2. And at this same moment, what does He say to His disciples to show that in regard to them too. He has “ finished His work ” ? He leaves them peace, His own peace, not that which the world promises, but that which He alone can give. It is the perfect gift He leaves to His Apostles, as to all souls redeemed and saved.

This gift is so precious and so necessary for the preser¬ vation of every other gift that Jesus bids His disciples greet one another with this wish of peace as their salutation of rule.

All the letters of St. Paul — the herald of the mystery of Christ — begin with this salutation : “ Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ ” : Gratia vobis et pax a Deo nostro et Domino Jesu Christo. The Apostle associates grace with peace, because grace is the primary condition of peace, “ without grace, " says St. Thomas, “ it is impossible to have true peace " : Sine gratia non potest esse vera pax 6.

This peace, like other every good gift, comes from God the Father as being its first principle 7. This is why St. Paul throughout his Epistles often designates the Heavenly Fa¬ ther as “ the God of peace 1. " This peace comes, too, from Christ : did He not gain it for us in giving, through His immolation, full satisfaction to Divine justice ? Then, as says St. Paul 2, peace comes to us from the Holy Spirit : it is one of the fruits of the Spirit of Love, as much so as is joy. Peace is an essentially supernatural, an essentially Christian gift.¹

We cannot then be astonished that the holy Lawgiver places it before us as a gift that we should eagerly seek after, and that the word “ pax ” has become one of our dearest mottoes. It adorns the front of our monasteries. Inscribed on the threshold of our cloisters, it ought above all to be engraved in the depths of our hearts and emanate from our whole being. It is the word that best sums up, even in the eyes of seculars, the characteristic harmony of our life 3. Peace, the supreme result of the practice of virtue in a heart given wholly to God, is the first good we wish to those who come to us ; faithful to the Gospel precept and inheritor of the first ages of the Church, our Holy Father wills that the prior and brethren shall give the kiss of peace to all guests who arrive at the monastery.

But how can we truly wish this good to others if we do not possess it in ourselves ? Let us then see what this peace is, — what are its characteristics, — and what is the source whence it is to be derived.

If we are to be worthy disciples of Christ and of St. Bene¬ dict we must seek this good as a great treasure. In the Prologue where he traces the broad outline of his institution, the holy Legislator recalls these words of the Psalmist 6 :

Seek after peace, and pursue it ” : Inquire pacem et persequere earn. It is remarkable that he associates the seeking after peace with the seeking after God, as two ends which become but one. Indeed they who strive to find this peace for themselves and others are truly the children of God : He Who is the Infallible Truth tells us : “ Blessed are the peacemakers : for they shall be called the children of God " :

?s.\xv> 53 ; XVI, 20 ; I Cor. xiv, 33 etc. — 2. Gal. v, 22. — 3. This is °n®. °f.,the rfasons why Newman lias characterised the monastic life as Vi gui an. But the great Cardinal is totally mistaken in making what is atfriWe nf P°t .attPbu,te al*d a dominating and almost exclusive attribute of the Patriarch of monks and Western monasticism. Newman’s knowiedge of S‘ Benedict s character is incomplete and inexact ; his psychology °JLtb ® g'eat Patriarch is fantastic ; the idealogist, in Newman, has misled the psychologist and the historian. We see with what reservations The Mission of S Benedict (Historical Sketches II) must be read. — 4 Rule ch UII. - 5. Ps. XXXIII, 15. ’ ’

Beati pacifici, quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur. Our Holy Fa¬ ther who wishes, throughout his Rule, to bring us to God and make us perfect children of the Heavenly Father by the grace of Jesus, has ordained everything in the monastery in such a way “ that all the members may be at peace 2. ” vYith this conference on peace we shall therefore finish determining the characteristics that mark the physiognomy of the monk, the disciple of Christ.

I

What then is peace ? It is not here a question of exterior peace, that which results for us from solitude and silence This peace is certainly a great thing, for silence and solitude help the faithful soul to be recollected, the better to turn to God. However, as we have said, this outward peace is profitless if the imagination is wandering and the soul is troubled and disquieted. It is of inward peace that I wish to speak to you. You know the definition that St. Augustine has given of this peace : " Peace is the tranquillity of order " : Pax est tranquillitas ordinis 4.

To understand the .force of this sentence let us carry our minds back to the days of the creation of Adam. It is said that God created mart “ right, ” in perfect rectitude of nature : Fecit Deus hominem rectum 6. He had given him, moreover, sanctifying grace, original justice. All Adam's faculties were perfect and perfectly harmonised. In this virgin nature, come forth from the hands of God, there was a magnificent subordination of the inferior powers to reason, of reason to faith, and of the whole being to God ; a harmony which was the divine radiation of original justice! The order was perfect in Adam, complete concord reigned between all the faculties, each of which rested in its object : hence was born unalterable peace. As St. Thomas says, it is “ from the union of the different appetites in man tending towards the same object that peace results " : Unio autem horum motuum est quidem de ratione pads 6.

Sin came into the world : all this admirable order was overthrown ; there was no longer union between man's different appetites ; diverse and contrary tendencies, gene rally in conflict, are henceforward to be encountered in him ; the flesh conspires against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the flesh.²

To find peace again, the desires must be brought back to order and unity. Now this order consists in the senses being dominated by reason and the reason being subject to God : until such order is re-established, peace cannot exist in the heart. “ Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are ever restless until they rest in Thee L "

But how are we to rest in God if sin has made us His ene¬ mies ? In consequence of sin — Adam’s sin and our own — far from being able to approach God, we are separated from Him by an abyss. Is man then for ever to be robbed of peace, is all his sighing after this lost possession to be in vain ? No. Order is to be re-established, and peace restored ; and you know in what an admirable manner. It is in Christ and through Christ that both order and peace are to be found again. “ O God, ” we say in one of the prayers of the Mass, “ Who in creating human nature, didst wonderfully dignify it ; and hast still more wonderfully renewed it ” : Deus, qui humanae substantiae dignitatem miyabilitey condidisti, et miyabilius yefoymasti. A wonder that consists in the Word being made Man, in having taken our sin upon Himself in order to offer befitting expiation to His Father, in having restored to us God’s friendship and given us His own infinite merits whereby we may retain this friendship.

St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians : “ Now in Christ Jesus, you, who some time were afar off, are made nigh by the Blood of Christ. For He is our peace 2. ” He says again : “ God indeed was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing to them their sins 3. ” Christ is the holy Victim, perfectly pleasing to God and in Him God has forgiv¬ en us. As the Psalmist so well says, in Him, justice at length satisfied and peace at length restored have given each other the kiss of reconciliation : Justitia et pax osculatae sunt 5.

Christ is "the Prince of peace”: Pyinceps pads. He has come to fight against the prince of darkness and snatch us from the power of the devil and to make peace between God and man. And this Prince of Peace is so magnificent in His victory that He gives us a share in all His merits in order that we may for ever keep this peace won by His Blood. When the Psalmist announces the coming of the Messias, he says, as characteristic of His visitation : “ In His days shall justice spring up, and abundance of peace, till the

• Con/*f • Jib- 1 c- *• P- L- 32, col. 661. - a. Eph. II, 13-14. _ 3. II Cor. v, . —4- cf. Eph. IV, 32. — 5. Ps. lxxxiv, II. — 6. Isa. ix, 6 moon be taken away ” : Orietur in diebus ejus et fustitia abundantia pads, donee auferatur luna 1. In the weeks follow¬ ing His Resurrection, it is peace that Christ wishes to His Apostles each time He appears to them. His Passion expiated everything, paid off everything ; therefore this salutation of peace, henceforward restored by His grace, falls continually from His Divine lips 2. Is it not remarkable that this same wish of peace should be heard at the two extremities of His earthly career : when the Angels announce the opening of His mission of salvation and when, this being accomplished, He enters into His glorious life ? “ Peace be with you ” : Pax vobis.

Look at St. Paul. Tormented by the inward warfare of the flesh against the spirit, he cries out : “ Who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? ” And what answer does he give to his own question ? “ The grace of God, by

Jesus Christ Our Lord.” For, he adds, Christ by His death has freed us from all condemnation ; His grace has been given to us that we may live, not according to the desires of the flesh but according to those of the Spirit ; and he concludes, the desires and affections of the flesh bring forth death, the desires and affections of the Spirit bring life and peace : Nam prudentia carnis mors est: prudentia autem spiritus, vita et pax.

It is then in the grace of Christ Jesus that the principle of peace is to be found ; this it is which makes us pleasing to God and gives us His friendship, which makes us see that other men are our brethren, which subdues perverse tendencies in us and makes us live according to the Divine wm.

And this grace comes to us only through Christ. For such is the Divine order, the essential order: Christ Jesus has been established King over Sion. He is King by right of conquest, having delivered Himself up to death for the souls He wills to bring back to His Father ; He is this peaceful King Who shows His magnificence in coming down from Heaven to bring us pardon : Magnificatus est rex pad ficus*; the Father has given Him all power : Data est mihi omnis potestas in caelo et in terra 5 ; in order that He may be our justice, our sanctification, our redemption, and hence, “ our peace ” : ipse est pax nostra 6.

Such is the admirable order established by God Himself : i. Ps. LXXI, 7. — 2. Luc. XXIV, "5 7 ; Joan, xx, 19, 26. — 3. Rom. vii, 24- 25 ; vm, 1-6. — 4. Antiphon for i8t Vespers at Christmas. — 5- Matth. xxvm, 18. — 6. Eph. 11, 14.

Christ, the Ideal the Mouk.

Christ, the Head of all the elect, is, for each one of them, the source of grace, the principle of peace. Outside this order there can only be trouble and insecurity for the soul. Those who want to do without God, those whom Scripture calls " the impious ” cannot have peace : Non est pax impiis L Doubtless, certain of their desires can be satisfied, fulfilled even. They can satisfy to a certain point their thirst for pleasures and honours. But, says St. Thomas 2, this is an apparent and false peace ; the impious are ignorant of man’s true good : they put the contenting of their desires in appa¬ rent, relative, fugitive good ; thus these souls who appear haPPy are never truly so ; the heart remains empty even after having exhausted all the sources of joy that the creature can give, because our deepest desires exceed all sensible good. All we can do is in vain, our heart is created for God : this is one of the principles of order ; our heart has a capacity for the infinite, and no creature can satisfy it perfectly. Except in God there is only ephemeral joy and illusive peace \ the heart is agitated in vain in running after the creature. “ Why, " says St. Augustine, “ do you persist in ever traversing painful and wearisome paths ? Rest is not where you are seeking it... you pursue happiness m the sojourn of death ; it is elsewhere. How shall a happy life be found where there is not even true life ? ” Non est requies ubi quaeritis earn... Beatam vitam quaeritis in regione mortis, non est illic. Quomodo enim beata vita, ubi nec vita ? And the holy Doctor concludes : “ He Who is Life, our Life, has come down amongst us : Et descendit hue ipsa vita nostra 3. In Christ Jesus alone is to be found the principle of life, the source of peace. To enjoy true peace, we must then not only “ seek God, " but moreover we must seek Him in the way He wishes us to seek Him

• i ur ut0j ,Chpst- This is the fundamental order, established by God Himself, according to the good pleasure of His sovereign will: Ut notum faceret nobis sacramentum voluntatis suae, secundum beneplacitum ejus quod proposuit m eo... instaurare omnia in Christo 6. Outside this order fixed by Infinite Wisdom, we can find neither holiness nor perfection ) we can find neither peace nor joy.

II. of things ^ 7 We t conform ourselves to this Divine order

— 2. ii-ii, q. xxix,

— 4. Rule, ch. lviii.³

First of all by an act of practical faith which surrenders our whole being to Christ that we may follow Him. An act of faith in the Divinity of Jesus Christ, for we cannot give ourselves entirely to Him unless we have this deep conviction that He is the Son of God and that He is every¬ thing for us. We must have this absolute faith in the Al¬ mighty power of Jesus, in His sovereign bounty, in the infinite value of His merits, in the inexhaustible abundance of His riches. When the P'ather sent Him to us to be the ambassador of Divine peace, He told us nothing else than to hear this Son in Whom He has placed all His delight : Ifsum audited. It is on this condition that the Divine grace and friendship are restored to us. Our first attitude is therefore faith : “ Yea, Heavenly Father, Jesus is Thy Well-beloved Son ; this I believe, and I adore this Son. ” Then the Father regards us with the same look of love with which He regards His Son. Does not Our Lord Himself assure us of this ? " The Father Himself loveth you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God 3. ” And when He pleads for His disciples and for us, when upon the point of quitting earth He confides us to His Father’s goodness. He brings forward no other reason for His request than the faith that His disciples have in His Divinity. Let us listen to Him in that ineffable discourse He has with His Father when about to reconcile the world with God by His sacrifice : Father keep them, save them, for they have truly known that I am Thy Son and that all I have comes from Thee : Pater, serva eos... cognoverunt quia omnia quae dedisti mihi, abs te sunt... cognoverunt vere quia a te exivi 4.

This act of faith marks the dawn of peace for us.

Is not this natural, since it is through faith in Jesus Christ that we enter into the Divine order of grace, the foundation of peace ? “ Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace with God, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom also we have access through faith into this grace... and glory in the hope of this glory of the sons of God. "

This faith ought to be practical; it ought to extend to all our being, and have for its object all that touches Christ.

Souls are to be met with who truly wish to adore Christ, but they confine their submission to His Person alone, refusing to extend it to His Church. When these souls cannot lay claim to be in good faith, they cannot find peace : they are not according to the Divine order. We must then give ourselves entirely to Jesus Christ, surrender to Him out soul, our understanding, our will, our body : everything in us ought to be subject to Him ; all that is withdrawn from the action of His Spirit is withdrawn from the Divine order. Outside the light of the Word, there is only darkness; outside the way which is Himself, we find only error; without His grace, there is only powerlessness. And indeed what peace can be given to us by darkness, error and powerlessness to go to God, the only true Good, the only true End of our life ?⁴

Let us then yield ourselves up to Our Lord by an act of living faith, of deep adoration, of perfect submission and entire abandonment. Let us ask Him to direct all our life, to be the object of all our aspirations, the principle of all our actions. He is “ the Prince of Peace, " “ the pacific King” : Rex 'pad ficus: may He be really the King of our souls. We say to God every day : " Thy Kingdom come ” : Adveniat regnum tuum. What is this Kingdom of God which we desire ? It is the Kingdom of Christ, for God has apointed Him King upon earth and in heaven ” : Postula a me, et da bo tibi gentes hereditatem tuam !

When we thus submit ourselves entirely to Christ Jesus, when we abandon ourselves to Him, when our soul only responds, like His own, with a perpetual Amen to all that He asks of us in the name of His Father ; when, after His example, we abide in this attitude of adoration before all the manifestations of the Divine Will, in face of the least permissions of His Providence, then Christ Jesus establishes His peace in us : His peace, not that which the world pro¬ mises, but the true peace which can only come from Himself : Pacem meam do vobis ; non quomodo mundus dat, ego do vo bis 2.

Indeed, such adoration produces in us the unity of all desires. The soul has but one thing in view : the establishing in her of Christ s Kingdom Christ Jesus, in return, satisfies this desire with magnificent plenitude. The soul possesses the perfect contentment of her deepest tendencies because the satisfaction of her supernatural desires has been reduced to one ; she is in the right order of things ; she lives in peace.

Happy the soul who has thus understood the order established by the Father, that soul who seeks only to be conformed by love to His admirable order, where all leads up to Christ Jesus : she tastes peace, a peace of which St. Paul says that it surpasses all understanding and defies all expression. “ It is impossible, ” saysBlosius, “ to explain the abundance of this peace in the soul altogether given to God and seeking Him alone 2. ”⁵

III

And this peace is a lasting peace. What indeed can trouble it ? The devil ? He is a powerful enemy, without doubt, who seeks to devour us ; but if the dog, when he is chained up, barks, he can only bite those who go near him : l.ulrare potest, mordere non potest, nisi volentem 3. Christ has conquer¬ ed him, we shall be conquerors in our turn, for Christ Jesus is more powerful than he. Moreover, does not God surround the soul with a special protection, if, seeking Him alone, it likewise puts all its confidence in Him ? He commands His Angels to keep it in all its ways in order that it shall not stumble 4 ; He Himself keeps it “ in the secret of His face 5. ” What enemy shall be able to trouble it ? What terror shall be able to come near it ?

Neither can the world destroy this peace. Fear not, said our Lord to His disciples ; and He repeats this to us : Fear not ; you shall have tribulations in the world, but I abide with you. “Have confidence, I have overcome the world ” : Confidite, ego vici mundum. If you remain faithful to Me, I will give you, with My grace, My own peace. My all-powerful grace shall indeed make you victorious over the solicitations of the world.

The world may offer us its pleasures, vent its sarcasms upon us ; it no longer touches us ; we have left all to follow Christ ; our peace, founded upon the truth of Jesus, cannot be broken into by the world’s weapons.

Shall our peace be destroyed by temptation ? by contra¬ dictions ? by sufferings ? Again no. Doubtless, here be¬ low, peace is not always sensible ; upon earth we are in a condition of trial and, most often, peace is won by conflict. Christ has not restored to us that original justice which estab¬ lished harmony in Adam’s soul, but the soul that lays hold on God alone participates in the Divine stability; temptations, sufferings, trials touch only the surface of our being ; the depths where peace reigns are inaccessible to disturbance. The surface of the sea may be violently agitated by the waves during the tempest; the deep waters remain tranquil. We may be slighted, opposed, persecuted, be unjustly treated, our intentions and deeds may be misunder¬ stood ; temptation may shake us, suffering may come sud¬ denly upon us ; but there is an inner sanctuary which none can reach ; here is the sojourn of our peace, because in this innermost secret of the soul dwell adoration, submission and abandonment to God. " I love my God, ” said St. Au¬ gustine, “ no one takes Him from me : no one takes from me what I ought to give Him, for that is enclosed within my heart... O inward riches which no one or anything can take away 1 ! ”⁶

In the centre of the soul that loves God there rises up the civilas pads which no noise of earth can trouble, that no attack can surprise. We may truly say that nothing which is exterior, outside us, can, unless we so will, touch our inward peace : this essentially depends on only one thing, namely our attitude towards God. It is in Him that we must trust. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear ? " If the wind of temptation and trial arises, I have only to take refuge with Him. “ Lord, save me, for without Thee, I perish. ” And our Lord, as formerly when in the ship tossed about by the waves, will Himself calm the tempest with a single gesture ; and there will come a great calm ; Et facta cst tranguillitas magna 3.

If we really seek God in everything, by following in the footsteps of Christ, Who is the sole way that leads to the Father ; if we strive to be detached from all, that we may only desire the Master’s good pleasure ; if, when the Spirit of Jesus speaks to us, there is in us no inflexibility of soul, no resistance to His inspirations, but only docility and adoration, we may be assured that peace, deep and abundant will reign in us ; for, O Lord, " much peace have they that love Thy law .Pax multa diligentibus legem tuam L Souls that do not wish to give all to Our Lord, and to bring all their desires to unity by this total donation, cannot taste this true peace. They are divided, tossed to and fro between themselves and God, between the satisfaction of their self-love and obedience ; they are the prey of trouble and disquiet.

X. Euan, in Psalm, lv, n. 19. P. L. 36, col. 650. Matth. vm, 26. — 4. Ps. cx vm, 165.

— 2. Ps. xxvi, 1.

" Let us ever cleave to God ; let us have Him within us ; in Him every object of our love is stable and immutable L ” “ There only is sure peace to be found where love remains faithful ” : Et ibi est locus quietis imperturbabilis, ubi non deseritur amor, si ipse non deserat.

Even its past sins do not trouble the soul established in peace. Certainly it feels profound sorrow in having offended the Heavenly Father, in having caused the sufferings of Jesus and grieved the Spirit of Love ; but this sorrow is not mixed with agitation and fever : the soul knows that Jesus is the Ransom for sin, and a Ransom of infinite value ; that He has become “ the propitiation for our sins, and... for those of the whole world 8 ; ” that now. He is at the right hand of His Father, ever living, a compassionate High Priest Who unceasingly pleads in our favour : Semper vivens ad inter pellandum pro nobis*. Nothing gives such peace to a contrite soul as to be able to offer to the Father all the sufferings, expiations, satisfactions and merits of His beloved Son ; nothing gives the soul such confidence as to be able to render to Him, through Jesus, all glory and praise. For this homage of Christ, which the soul makes its own, is full, adequate, leaving nothing to be desired ; thus it gives deep peace to the soul that finds in Jesus the perfect means of repairing all its negligences and all its faults.

Neither can discouragement penetrate into this soul to trouble it ; it knows something of “ the unsearchable riches of Christ ” : Investigabiles divitias Christi. Doubtless, of itself, it can do nothing, nor even have a good thought, but it submits to the order willed by God, the Author of the supernatural life, and it knows that in this order is likewise contained the power the soul has of appropriating to itself the riches of Jesus : “ I can do all things in Him Who strengthened me ” : Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat. It knows that, with Him, through Him, in Him, it is rich with the very riches of Christ, “ so that nothing is wanting to [it] of any grace ” : Divites facti estis... ita ut nihil vobis desit in ulla gratia 7. Its confidence cannot be shaken, because the soul belongs to Him Who is for it the Way, the Light, and the Life ; He Who is the Master above all others, the Good Shepherd, the charitable Samaritan, the faithful Friend. Our Lord revealed to a soul that one of the reasons of His bounteous gifts to St. Gertrude was the absolute confidence that this great nun had in His goodness and His treasures.⁷

Finally, neither can death trouble the soul that has only sought God. Has it not confided itself to the One Who says : “ He that believeth in Me, although he be dead, shall live,” Qui credit in Me, etiamsi mortuus fuerit, vivit 2 ? Our Lord is the Truth ; He is also the Life ; and He brings us. He restores to us, the life that is unending. Even though the shadow of death falls upon it, this soul will abide in peace, Nam etsi ambulavero in medio umbrae mortis, non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum esz. Does it not know in Whom it has trusted: Scio cui credidi 4 ? And this presence of Jesus reassures the soul against every terror.

In one of her “ Exercises, ” St. Gertrude allows her assurance, which the infinite merits of Jesus give her, to overflow. At the thought of the divine tribunal of which the image rises up before her mind, she makes the most moving appeal to these merits. " Woe, woe unto me, if, when I come before Thee, I had no advocate to plead my cause ! O Love, stand thou forth on my behalf, answer for me, sue out my pardon. If thou undertake my cause, I know that I still have hope of life. I know what I will do, I will take the chalice of salvation, even the chalice of my Jesus. I will lay it upon the empty scale of the balance of Truth. So shall I supply all that is lacking, and outweigh all my sins. That chalice will raise up again the ruins of my hope, for therewith I shall infinitely overbalance all my unworthiness... Come Thou with me to judgment, ” says St. Gertrude to our Lord ; “ there let us stand together. Judge me, for the right is Thine ; but remember Thou art also my Advocate. In order that I be fully acquitted, Thou hast but to recount what Thou didst become for love of me, the good Thou hast decreed to do unto me, the price wherewith Thou hast purchased me. Thou hast taken my nature to this very end, that I might not perish. Thou hast borne the burden of my sins. Thou hast died for me, that I might not die an eternal death. Thou hast willed to make me rich in merit, and so hast Thou given me all. Judge me, then, at the hour of my death according to that innocence and that purity which Thou didst bestow on me in Thee when Thou didst pay all my debts, when i. Joan, xi, 25. — 2. Joan, xi, 25. — 3. Ps. xxn, 4. —⁸

Thou wast Thyself judged and condemned in my stead ; that, all poor and destitute as I am in myself, I might have all and abound. ”

For souls moved by such sentiments, death is but a tran¬ sition ; Christ comes Himself to open to them the gates of the Heavenly Jerusalem, which, much more so than that of old, deserves to be called the “ Blessed vision of peace ” : Beata pads visio 2. There will be no more darkness, trouble, tears, or sighs ; but peace, infinite and perfect peace. “ Peace first becomes ours with the longing and seeking for the Creator ; it is in the full vision and eternal possession of Him that peace is made perfect " : Pax enim nostra ex desiderio Conditoris inchoatur, ex manifesta autem visione perficiturz.

IV

Let us then ask Jesus to bring us, to give us this peace which is the fruit of His love. “ O Lord God, give peace unto us, ” as St. Augustine so well says at the end of his Confessions, that wonderful book where he shows us how he had sought peace in every possible satisfaction of the senses, the mind and the heart, without finding them else¬ where than in God. “ Give peace unto us... the peace of the Sabbath, a peace without any evening, ” Domine Deus, pacem da nobis, pacem quietis, pacem sabbati, sabbati sine vespera. “ For Thou, the Supreme Good, that needest no good, art ever at rest, because Thou Thyself art that rest. And what man is there that can make another man to understand this ? Or what Angel, an Angel ? Or what Angel, a man ? Let it be asked of Thee, let it be sought in Thee.” And the holy Doctor who had made the experience of all things, who had felt the vanity of every creature, the frailty of all human happiness, ends the book with this cry : “ So shall it be received, so shall it be found, so shall it be opened. ”

Let us ask this peace for each of our brethren who dwell with us in the same spiritual Jerusalem, Rogate quae ad pacem sunt Jerusalem* ; this peace will be given to us ; but

1 . Exercices of S*- Gertrude. Seventh Exercise : Reparation. Translated by Thomas Alder Pope, M. A., of the Oratory. — 2. Hymn for Vespers for the Dedication of a Church. — 3. S. Gregor. Moralia in Job, lib. VI, c. xxxiv, P. L. 73, col. 758. — 4. Tu autem bonum nullo indigens bono, semper quietus es ; quoniam tua quies tu ipse es. Et hoc intelligere, quis hominum dabit homini ? quis angelus angelo ? quis angelus homini ? a te petatur, in te quaeratur, ad te pulsetur ; sic, sic, accipietur, sic invenietur , sic aperietur. Amen. Lib. XIII, c. 35 and 38. P. L. 32, col. 867, 868. Translation of Sir Tobie Matthew, Kt. Revised and amended by Dom Roger Huddleston. O. S. B. — 5. Ps. cxxi, 6. we shall especially obtain it by an attitude of soul full of adoration, of submission and abandonment to Our Lord. Here, as I repeat, is the source of the only true peace, because here is the Divine order and consequently the true satis¬ faction of the innermost desires of our souls. On the day of our Profession we relinquished everything, we gave our¬ selves to Jesus that we might follow Him : Reliquimus omnia, et secuti sumus te. We have but to continue in this dispo¬ sition and we shall taste peace. Everything in the Holy Rule is ordered in such a way as to procure this peace, all leads us to it ; and the monastery, where men live according to this Rule is indeed, even here below, a " vision of peace. ” Each one who lets himself be fashioned and moulded by humility, obedience, the spirit of abandonment and confi¬ dence, those foundations of the monastic life, becomes a city of peace.

This is because our Holy Father has marvellously under¬ stood the Divine plan, the order established by God. Our souls are made for God ; unless they are set towards this end, they are perpetually in agitation and trouble. Now St. Benedict wishes that we should have but this one and universal intention : That we should seek God : Si revera Deum quaerit 2; he makes all converge to this : this is the centre of his Rule. By the unity of this end, he brings unity into all the manifold actions of our life, and especially into the desires of our being ; and this is, according to St. Thomas, one of the essential elements of peace : Tranquillitas consistit in hoc quod omnes moius appetitivi in uno homine conquiescunt 3. Our souls are troubled when they are torn by desires that bear upon a thousand different objects : Sollicila es, et turbaris erga plurima 4; when we seek God alone by an obedience full of abandonment and love, we sum up all things in the one thing necessary ; and it is this that esta¬ blishes strength and peace within us.

Secondly, penetrating more deeply into the Divine order, the holy Patriarch tells us that without Christ we shall not attain to this end : He alone is the way that leads us to it. Therefore, in opening his Rule, he shows us no other means than the love of Christ \ Ad te ergo nunc mihi sermo dirigitur, quisquis... Domino Christo vero Regi tnilitaturus; it is by giving Christ full dominion over our hearts, that we shall be true disciples of St. Benedict. And when i. Matth. xuc, 27 — 2. Rule, ch. lviii. — 3. 11-11, q. xxix 3. — 4. Luc. x, 41. — 5. Prologue of the Rule. a. 1, ad 1 ; a. he takes leave of us, he repeats this to us once more under the form of an urgent counsel of which he shows us the value : “ Prefer nothing whatever to Christ ” : Christo omnino nihil praeponant, qui nos pariter ad vitam aeternam per ducat 1.

Such is, in brief, the whole of the Divine order shown forth by the holy Legislator with an admirable simplicity of outline. To return to God by Christ, to seek God in Christ, to tend towards God in the footsteps of Christ. And so as to prove that this seeking after God is sincere, absolute and total : — separation from the world, humility, loving obedience, the spirk of abandonment and confidence, the preponderance given to the life of prayer, the love of our neighbour. These are virtues of which Christ Jesus has given us the first example ; their exercise proves that we truly seek God, that we prefer absolutely nothing to the love of Jesus Christ, that we make Him our one and only Ideal.

Happy the monk who walks in this path ! Even in the greatest sufferings, in the most painful temptations, in the most trying adversities, he will find light, peace and joy. Everything is ordered in his soul as God wills it, and all his desires are unified in the one sole Good for Whom he is created.

St. Benedict, who spoke from experience, could likewise guarantee to us the obtaining of many and great things. In the measure, he says, that the monk goes forward in the way of faith and the practice of the virtues, it is “ with heart enlarged that he runs with unutterable sweetness of love in the way of God’s commandments ” : Dilatato corde, inenarrabili dilectionis dulcedine curritur via mandator um Dei 2. Happy, once again, is this monk ! Divine peace dwells in his soul, it is reflected upon his countenance, it is shed around him. He is essentially what our Holy Father wishes the monk to be : — the child of God through Christ’s grace, a perfect Christian : Beati pacifici, quoniam filii Dei vocabuntur 3. Blessed, indeed, because God is with him ; and at every moment, he finds in this God, Whom he came to the monastery to seek, the greatest and most precious good, because He Himself is the Supreme and Unchanging Good Who never disappoints the desire of those who seek Him in the simplicity and sincerity of their hearts : Si revera Deum quaerit. i. Rule, ch. lxxii. — 2. Prologue of the Rule. — 3. Matth. v, 9.

Footnotes

1. 1. Luc. it, 14. — 2. T^ann. xvir, 4. — 3. Ibid, xiv, 2 7. — 4- Luc. x, 5. — 5. Except that to the Hebrews which, as we know, was probably not written by Paul’s own hand. — 6. 11-11, q. xxix, a. 3, ad 1. — 7- Cf. Jac. 1, 17.
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2. 1. Matth. v, g. — 2. Rule, ch. xxxiv. — 3. See above p. 363 sq. — 4. De civitate Dei, L. xix, ch. 13. P. L. 41 ; col. 640. — 5. Eccle. vn, 30. — 6. ii-ii, q. xxxix, a. 1. — 7. Ibid. a. 1 and 2.
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3. a. 2, ad. 3. — 3. Confess. — 5- Eph. 1, 9-10. ↩

4. 1. " Peace between man and God, is obedience well ordered in faith under the eternal law. " St. Augustine. De civitate Dei, lib. XIX, c. 13. P. L. 41, col. 640. — 2. Matth. xvu, 5. — 3- Joan, xvi, 27. — 4- Ibid, xvii, 11, ;-8. — 5. Rom. v, 1-2.
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5. x. Pc. 11, 8. — 2. Joan, xiv, 27. ↩

6. I PhiliD IV, 7. — 2. Canon vitae spiritualis , ch. xiv. Perfecta pax el qutta animarunu — 3 Appendix to the Sermons of S‘ Augustine, xx.xvn, 6. - 4- Ps. xc, ii. — 5- Ibid, xxx, ai. — 6. Joan, xvi, 33. ↩

7. 1. S. Augustin. De tnusica, lib. VI, c. 14, n. 48. P. L. 32, col. 1188. — 2. S. Augustin. Confess. L. IV, c. 11. Ibid. col. 700. — 3. I Joan. 11, 2. — 4. Hebr. vn, 25. — 5. Eph. in, 8.-6. I Cor. 1, 5, 7. — 7- Herald of Divine Love, book I, ch. 10.
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8. 4. II Tim. 1, 12.
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