How do we cultivate peace? How do we bring about peace in our world, our families, and our church? St. James tells us what brings about the opposite of peace, what brings about division and envy. I want you to think about your life right now: Is there some area of your life that you don’t experience peace in? Is there any area where you don’t experience peace? Hopefully, going through the reading, we will learn how we can experience peace in the midst of it.
Saint James says, “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every kind of foul practice, but the wisdom of God is, first of all, pure, peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy, and good fruits. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace to those who cultivate peace.” We have a lot of un-peace and division in our world. We have two major wars going on with Russia and with the Holy Land as well. How do we cultivate peace? Probably of my own accord, I can’t go over there and stop those wars, and I don’t know that each and every one of us could probably do that on our own either. But the Holy Spirit promises us that if we cultivate peace in our own hearts, then peace will radiate, that peace will transcend to our families, that peace will transcend to our parish, that peace will transcend to the church and the entire world. We also live in a country right now that’s very divided and there’s not a lot of peace amongst us. How do we bring about peace in the midst of all of this strife?
Well, Mother Teresa had a simple path. It’s five short phrases about how to experience peace. As I go through Mother Teresa’s path, I would like you to think about your own life. Do we follow this path, or are there parts of the path that maybe we need to work on so that we can actually have peace in our lives?
I will read it first: Mother Teresa’s Path of Peace: The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace.
I’d like to go through that just phrase by phrase and allow us all to look at our lives and see if there any areas that we can cultivate peace maybe where we haven’t been. She says to begin with silence. It’s interesting because Mother Teresa always began her holy hour with silence. She said that it is in the silence of the heart that God speaks. God is a friend of silence. We need to listen to God because it’s not what we say, but what He says to us that matters.
I know probably a lot of us have a difficult time hearing God’s voice and oftentimes we have a difficult time even being in silence, but Mother Teresa’s telling us something very important: that if we remain in silence for long enough, God will speak to us. And if we remain in silence, I think that is another way to bring about peace. You probably know this in your own family’s marriages. Husbands, sometimes, it’s better if you just don’t say a word and remain silent. But, part of that too is that when we’re silent all of the emotions, all of the strife, all of the anger, all of the fear that has been in us, comes to the surface, and if we don’t allow ourselves to settle that down, we end up acting on it. We end up saying things that we shouldn’t say; we end up doing things that we shouldn’t do. But if we spend that time in silence, those emotions, those spiritual battles that we all face, will begin to settle.
Now, it takes a while for some of us, especially if we don’t practice silence often. But just think of that the next time you get mad, upset, envious, jealous, or angry. Before you call anyone, before you say anything, before you do anything, go to the Blessed Lord, come to the Blessed Sacrament, and be there in silence until everything subsides.
She says the fruit of silence, if we do that, will be prayer. Mother Teresa talks about prayer being this need to experience God and to hear the voice of God and she promises us that if we spend enough time in silence he will speak; we will hear his voice. When it is difficult for us to hear God’s voice, silence is the way to do that, just to be in silence. Then she says the fruit of prayer becomes the fruit of faith. Mother Teresa would say, ‘Be faithful in the small things in life because it’s in them that lies your strength.’ When we feel overwhelmed, when we feel like life becomes unmanageable for us, is there one tiny little act that we can have faith in God? ‘God, I know you can help me with this.’
Mother Teresa’s other great line is she said, ‘God does not require us to be successful, but to be faithful.’ Maybe there are areas in our life where we’re finding we are not being successful, and that can cause us to begin to fear and worry, to have jealousy and envy. Can we simply be faithful, that God may actually take care of this better than I can or better than you can? God has his ways. So, the fruit of prayer is faith. The next phrase: the fruit of faith is love. If we’ve gone through this journey of this, the next fruit will be love. She says, in the West, particularly America, we don’t have the diseases that they may have around the rest of the world where the poor are suffering from tuberculosis and leprosy. She said our disease is very different. In America, our disease is being unwanted, uncared for, and unloved. She said we can cure medical diseases with doctors, with medicine, but the only cure for loneliness, hopelessness, and despair is love.
If we have faith in God, then we begin to act more lovingly to people around us. Mother Teresa also says that there is not only a terrible hunger for love, but we all live in our lives with this pain of loneliness and have the courage to recognize it, but she says other people have loneliness too. The poor, you may have right in your own family. Love them. So, if we follow this path, the next thing we can do is try to find somebody in our lives that we think may be lonely and do what we can to love them.
The fruit of love then is service. That’s the next step. How do we make this love happen in our lives? She says it’s really quite simple. She uses the example of dying and she says the dying are moved by the love they receive, and it may be just by the touch of a hand, or a glass of water, or providing them with something sweet that they desire. You just take that to them, but they ask for it, and they’re satisfied to know that somebody actually cares for them, loves them, and wants them, and that is itself the greatest help you could give them.
Because of this, they will believe that God must be even kinder and more generous, and so their souls are lifted to God. Find that person who needs love, that person who seems isolated and lonely, and do something even small to love them. Finally, she says the fruit of service brings us to closure: peace.
If we follow this path along the way, we will experience peace. Mother Teresa says the works of love always are works of peace. Whenever you share your love with others, you’ll notice the peace that comes with you and with them. When there is peace, there is God. This is how God touches our lives and shows his love for us by pouring peace and joy into our hearts.
I want you to go back to that situation in your mind right now. Where is that place in your life where there is discord, anger, upset, fear, and not peace? Can we experience that peace by following Mother Teresa’s path?
‘The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, and the fruit of service is peace.’
