peacefruit

The Fruit of Peace

ŠDavid Kralik, Inc. Ministries 2003
Email: matthewfivesix@hotmail.com

Peace, in its simplest definition, is the absence of war or other hostilities. Envisioning peace, in a world filled with conflict and hostility, is a difficult project. Practicing peace, in this same environment overflowing with political and personal hostility, is an even more difficult one.

Millions of people in our world today carry a copy of the St. Francis Peace Prayer in their wallets, have it taped to their computers, or have it hung on their walls at home. It says,

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that I many not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

There comes a point in our lives where we must make a serious rational choice to either perpetuate peace or become an opponent of it. Some feel that arms and militiamen are the tools necessary to secure peace in our modern world that is filled with generous measures of craziness. Others take up banners and go on marches protesting of the use of aggressive and lethal force. The atmosphere and middle ground between these two fields of view, more often than not, becomes supercharged with antagonistic friction and is devoid of anything that remotely resembles genuine peaceableness.

I'm not so much interested in a state or condition of pseudo-peace, those frauds that are produced as the result of societies pacifying their protestors or by detonating destruction upon their enemies. My interest is in a personal peace that stills my own restless interior world and radiates outwardly within my concentric circles of influence to effect the greater physical world that I reside in. This is the quiet, gentle nature of the fruit of the Spirit known as peace.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Matthew 5:9

At the time of this writing, I find myself locked in an internal wrestling match that had itself tangled up inside of me ever since the Twin Towers incident. Militarily, this country has been amassing troops preparing for an assault upon Iraq and tensions continue to increase. I want to be a good, supportive citizen. Yet, I also want to be genuinely Christian. I was taught to believe in the American way of life and the strength of this nation as a political and economic entity. I was also taught to believe in the principles and example of Christ. How can I believe in both when it is so plainly obvious that these two concepts have grown to be at extreme odds with each other?

Life in our greed driven thoroughly modern world equipped with modern conveniences and technological advances that far exceed the imaginations of the most brilliant of men who lived less than a hundred years ago challenges me to find examples of people who exemplify the fruit of peace in their lives. It easy to find examples of people who are great military leaders. Finding examples of men and women who are financially successful doesn take a great deal of work. Examples of men and women who exemplify fulfilling the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life abound. But who can show me how to live as a blessed peacemaker in this world intent upon satiating itself with power and prestige?

We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way. Saint Francis

Peacemakers heal wounds rather than creating them. Peacemakers work toward mending breaches rather than uprooting landmarks. Peacemakers escort the wayward and fallen to the place of healing rather than pushing them farther away with pompous or pietistical attitudes.

We don't have to profess Catholic Christianity to appreciate and learn from the life of Saint Francis. Francis was a man of peace during a time of war. The fruit of his faithfulness remains with us yet after close to a millennium. Though he could have inherited the success of his family, Francis rejected the encumbrances of wealth, family, and social esteem choosing instead to live a life of prayer, simplicity, and peacefulness.

As his life touched and influenced others, a ragtag movement of followers soon grew from a handful of friars to a movement of hundreds of thousands. Every country of Europe was infiltrated by these saintly agents of peace. A Franciscan peace movement swept across the globe leading people to lay down their weapons and disputes. Because of Francis, and the movement that arose around him, feudalism was dealt a death blow in Europe.

The influence of Francis reached even further in his attempt to bring reconciliation between the Christians and Muslims of his day.

The Crusades were launched in 1095 as an effort to rescue Jerusalem from Muslim invaders. Three centuries later, the Crusades had evolved into a continent wide series of campaigns and battles against not only Muslims but also pagans, heretics, and other enemies of Christ. Official church documents referred to the disciples of Islam as dogs and wicked people and the soldiers of the Crusades treated them as such recreating one bloody and tragic scene after another.

Into this horror and hatred walked Francis. His attempts to talk with certain of the Muslim leaders met with no success, so he crossed over enemy lines during the Fifth Crusade near Damietta, Egypt, risking his life in the hopes of having a personal audience with Melek el-Khamil, the sultan of Babylon. He hoped to convert the sultan to Christianity with words rather than weapons of war.

His attempt met with little success. The sultan remained a committed Muslim. But he developed an affection for Francis, the kind of affection that led him to remark that if there were more Christians like Francis, he would consider becoming one. Who can show me how to live as a blessed peacemaker in this world intent upon satiating itself with power and prestige? I find an example in Francis that is not easily ignored. It is also an example that challenges me to consider my own life and way of living.

How many of my own preconceived ideas and notions do I need to rethink and adjust in order to more perfectly reflect the life of the Lord himself who teaches us: blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God. Or can I possibly force myself to ignore the example of Francis and the expectations of the Lord?

If you love peace, then hate injustice, hate tyranny, hate greed - but hate these things inside of yourself, not in another. Gandhi

There is a verse of Scripture that has continued to resonate in my mind while contemplating the near and far reaching effect of the fruit of peace. It is found in Philippians 4:4-7."Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." How beautifully simple the truth is, so simple that we can easily miss it. Peace is a gift from God that comes to us along with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yet, in our human anxiousness, in our earnest laboring to acquire or achieve spirituality, we easily interfere with receiving the bestowment of this precious gift. Realizing the peace of God comes when we finally let go, when we finally quit trying to do God our way and let God do in us what he chooses and to do it the way he chooses.

Letting go is a frightening thought. Letting go means that we come to the point where we honestly acknowledge that we are not in control of anything - let alone God! Letting go means that we cease trying to fashion God into our own image and begin trying to understand what it means to be created in his. Letting go puts an end to our humanly manipulative tendencies allowing us to enter into the fruitful realm of spiritual surrender. Here, in the realm of fruitful spiritual surrender, we discover and experience tastes of what we hunger for, tastes that create even deeper levels of hunger that are satisfied only by deeper levels of personal surrender.

Though most evangelical Christians aren't familiar with him, Catholic readers more easily recognize the name of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin. Joseph Bernardin was ordained a priest in 1952 and became a Cardinal in 1983. The concluding chapter of his life is one that epitomizes the topic of peace in the midst of personal trial as pancreatic cancer took its toll on his body.

In The Gift Of Peace, Personal Reflections he writes,

Just prior to my surgery, many people asked me to share my thoughts. I said, 'I've been a priest for 43 years and a bishop for 29 of those years. I have always told others to put themselves in the hands of the Lord. I have counseled many people who faced what I am facing. Now it is time for me to practice what I preach.'

During that time I prayed to God for the grace to handle my surgery and postoperative treatment faithfully, without bitterness or undue anxiety. God's special gift to me has been the ability to accept difficult situations, especially the false accusation made against me and then the cancer. His special gift to me is the gift of peace.

In turn, my special gift to others is to share God's peace, to help them deal with illness, troubled times.

By talking about inner peace, I hope people can see that there is a lot more to prayer and faith than mere words. God really does help us live even in the worst of times. And the capacity to do precisely this depends upon the deepening of our relationship to God through prayer. (p. 95-96)

Peace is more than an idea to be dissected and discussed. Peace is a principle to be practiced and it can only be realized and appropriated as we personally enter into God own bosom where our own human hearts and emotions are enveloped by the heart and emotions of God.

The fruit of the Spirit is peace. ~Galatians 5:22

First keep peace within yourself, then you can bring peace to others.
~Thomas A. Kempis