Unshakable Peace

Join the worldwide Magnificat family by subscribing now: Your prayer life will never be the same!

Photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash.

If we seek peace as the world gives it, if we expect peace in accordance with the reasoning of the world, or with the motivations that accord with the current men tality that surrounds us (because everything is going well, because we aren't experiencing any annoyances and our desires are completely satisfied, etc.), then it is certain that we will never know peace or that our peace will be extremely fragile and of short duration.

For us believers, the essential reason we can always be at peace does not come from this world. My kingdom is not of this world (Jn 18:36). It comes from trust in the Word of Jesus.

When the Lord affirms that he gives us peace, that he gives us his peace, these words are divine words, words that have the same creative force as the words that brought the sky and the earth from the void, they carry the same weight as the words that quieted the storm, the words that healed the sick and brought the dead back to life. Since Jesus tells us, even twice, that he gives us his peace, we believe that this peace is never taken away. God's gifts and his calling are irrevocable (Rom 11:29). It is we who do not always know how to acquire or preserve them because quite often we lack faith.

I have told you these things so that you will have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage! I have conquered the world (Jn 16:33). In Jesus, we may always abide in peace because he has conquered the world, because he is resurrected from the dead. By his death he conquered death; he annihilated the sentence of condemnation that weighs on us. He manifested the benevolence of God towrad us. And with God on our side, who can be against us? ... Who could ever separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom 8:31-35).