Slideshow image

 What is Peace?

The Thursday reflection in Day by Day asks that question.    It then continues with some suggestions: a house, a car, a good job, clothing, techy objects, or, the fine ingredients for the famous "St. John’s Duncan Men’s Christmas Cake". This list is filled with the material goods we all look for in our life—some more so than others.            

 

Thinking about this, I am reminded of two of my latest stressors:

  • To decorate the perfect cake for a visitor to the Island;
  • To balance the budget for our Strata. (As I am about to step down from the board, I want to insure we have a balanced budget going forward.)

In these economic times, finishing the cake became less of a stressor than balancing a budget.

I could add a third: each week, I like to have my sermon/homily finished by Thursday.

Because of other commitments, there I was Saturday evening, putting words to paper/laptop screen.  

Often in living out our Christian values, we find ourselves in conflict between the value we place on the material goods in life versus the value of our spiritual life.  

The writer in Day by Day reminds us how we often lose sight of our true peace: Christ’s love for us.

I know from personal experience, if I just stop for a few moments and listen for the voice of Christ in my life, peace happens.  

In the “Word for the Week”, I forwarded comments from Bro. David Vryhof, Society of Saint John the Evangelist, on the word ‘perception’. To quote: When we label others, we stop seeing them as they are. We see them only as we are determined to see them, as we have decided that they must be.            

 

The same could be applied to our understanding of peace. When we are looking for peace, often we only look to our personal perception of peace. Often, that perception is based on the material goods of life—the so-called “commercial” part of society.  

 

As Christians, our perspective on life requires us to go beyond the material goods of our life, to enter into the spiritual part of or lives.

 

When we journey with Christ as our focus, our life becomes broader and, I believe, more interesting, and fuller.  

 

It is not unlike in the gospel this past Sunday, when Jesus asks: What do you want me to do for you?            

What brings me peace????            

Blessings for this week,

Brian+