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The liberty of the children of God is the cause of
another privilege of virtue, no less precious than
itself � the interior peace and tranquillity which
the just enjoy. To understand this more clearly, we
must remember that there are three kinds of peace:
peace with God, peace with our neighbor, and peace
with ourselves. Peace with God consists in the favor
and friendship of God, and is one of the results of
justification. The Apostle, speaking of this
peace, says, "Being justified, therefore, by faith,
let us have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ." (Rom. 5:1). Peace with our neighbor consists
in a friendly union with our fellow men, which
banishes from us all ill-will towards them. David
enjoyed this peace when he said, "With them that
hated peace I was peaceable; when I spoke to them
they fought against me without cause." (Ps. 119:7).
To this peace St. Paul exhorted the Romans, "As much
as is in you, have peace with all men." (Rom. 12:18).
Peace with ourselves is the tranquillity arising from
a good conscience, and the harmony existing between
the spirit and the flesh when the latter has been
reduced to submission to the laws of reason. We
will first consider the agitation and anxiety of the
sinner, in order more keenly to appreciate the
blessing of holy peace. The wicked hearken to the
flesh, and, therefore, they are never free from the
disturbance caused by the unceasing and insatiable
demands of their passions. Deprived of God's grace
which can alone check their unruly appetites, they
are a prey to innumerable desires. Some hunger for
honors, titles, and dignities, others long for
riches, honorable alliances, amusements, or sensual
pleasures. But none of them will ever be fully
satisfied, for passion is as insatiable as the
daughters of the horse-leech, which continually cry
out for more and more. (Cf. Prov. 30:15). This leech
is the gnawing desire of our hearts, and its
daughters are necessity and concupiscence. The first
is a real thirst, the second a fictitious thirst; but
both are equally disturbing. Therefore, it is evident
that without virtue man cannot know peace, either in
poverty or riches; for in the former, necessity
allows him no ease, and in the latter, sensuality is
continually demanding more. What rest, what peace,
can one enjoy in the midst of ceaseless cries which
he cannot satisfy? Could a mother know peace
surrounded by children asking for bread which she
could not give them? This, then, is one of the
greatest torments of the wicked. "They hunger and
thirst," says the prophet, "and their souls faint
within them." (Ps. 106:5). Having placed their
happiness in earthly things, they hunger and thirst
for them as the object of all their hope. The
fulfillment of desire, says Solomon, is the tree of
life. (Cf. Prov. 8:12). Consequently, there is
nothing more torturing to the wicked than their
unsatisfied desires. And the more their desires are
thwarted, the stronger and more intense they become.
Their lives, then, are passed in wretched anxiety,
constant war raging within them. The prodigal is a
forcible illustration of the unhappy lot of the
wicked. Like him, they separate themselves from God
and plunge into every vice. They abuse and squander
all that God has given them. They go into a far
country where famine rages; and what is this country
but the world, so far removed from God, where men
hunger with desires which can never be satisfied,
where, like ravenous wolves, they are constantly
seeking more? And how do such men understand the
duties of life? They recognize no higher duty than
that of feeding swine. To satisfy the animal within
them, to feed their swinish appetites, is their only
aim. If you would be convinced of this, study the
life of a worldling. From morning until night, and
from night until morning, what is the object of his
pursuit? Is it not the gratification of some pleasure
of sense, either of sight, of hearing, of taste, or
of touch? Does he not act as if he were a follower of
Epicurus and not a disciple of Christ? Does he seem
to be conscious that he possesses any faculty but
those which he has in common with the beasts? For
what does he live but to enjoy the grossest pleasures
of the flesh? What is the end of all his revels, his
feasts, his balls, his gallantry, his luxurious
couches, his enervating music, his degrading
spectacles, but to afford new delights to the flesh?
Give all this what name you will � fashion,
refinement, elegance � in the language of God and the
Gospel it is feeding swine. For as swine love to
wallow in the mire, so these depraved hearts delight
to wallow in the mire of sensual pleasures. But
what is most deplorable in this condition is that a
son of such noble origin, born to partake of the
Bread of Angels at God's own table, would feed upon
husks which cannot even satisfy his hunger. In truth,
the world cannot gratify its votaries. They are so
numerous that, like swine grunting and fighting for
acorns at the foot of an oak, they quarrel and wrest
from one another the pleasures and gratifications for
which they hunger. This is the miserable condition
which David described when he said, "They wandered in
a wilderness, in a place without water. They were
hungry and thirsty; their soul fainted in them." (Ps.
106:4-5). A terrible characteristic of this hunger is
that it is increased by the gratifications which are
meant to appease it. The poisoned cup of this world
kindles in the hearts of the wicked a fire to which
pleasures only add renewed heat. Is it strange that
they are consumed by a burning thirst? Unhappy man!
Whence is it that you thirst so cruelly, if it be not
that you "have forsaken the fountain of living
waters, and sought broken cisterns which can hold no
water"? (Jer. 2:13). You have mistaken the source of
happiness. You wander in a wilderness, and,
therefore, you faint with hunger and thirst. When
Holofernes besieged Bethulia he cut off the
aqueducts, leaving to the besieged but a few little
streams which served only to moisten their lips. The
besieged city is an image of your condition. You have
cut yourselves off from the source of living waters,
and you find in creatures the little springs which
may moisten your lips, but, far from allaying your
thirst, will only increase it. The blindness and
vehemence of our desires often make us long for what
we cannot possibly obtain; and when, after violent
efforts, the object of our pursuit eludes our grasp,
anger is added to our disappointment, and both
combine to throw us into a state of confusion. This
gives rise to that internal warfare mentioned by St.
James when he asks "Whence are wars and contentions
among you? Are they not from your concupiscences,
which war in your members? You covet, and have not."
(James 4:1-2). Another lamentable feature of this
condition is that very often when men have attained
the summit of their wishes they are seized with a
desire for some other worldly advantage, and if their
caprice is not gratified, all they possess is
powerless to comfort them. Their unsatisfied desire
is a continual thorn. It poisons all their pleasure.
"There is also another evil," says Solomon, "which I
have seen under the sun, and which is frequent among
men. A man to whom God hath given riches, and
substance, and honor, and his soul wanteth nothing of
all that he desireth; yet God doth not give him power
to eat thereof, but a stranger shall eat it up. This
is vanity and a great misery." (Eccles. 6:1-2). Does
not the Wise Man here clearly point out the wretched
condition of one in the midst of abundance, and yet
unhappy because of his unsatisfied desires? If
such be the condition of those who possess the goods
of the world, how miserable must be the lot of those
who are in need of everything! For the human heart in
every state is alike subject to unruly appetites, is
alike the theater of a most bitter warfare which
rages among its opposing passions. When these
importunate desires are unsatisfied at every point,
the misery of their victim must be beyond
description. The condition of the wicked which we have been
considering will enable us by contrast to set a true
value on the peace of the just. Knowing how to
moderate their appetites and passions, they do not
seek their happiness in the pleasures of this life,
but in God alone. The end of their labors is not to
acquire the perishable goods of this world, but the
enduring treasures of eternity. They wage unceasing
war upon their sensual appetites, and thus keep them
entirely subdued. They are resigned to God's will in
all the events of their lives, and, therefore,
experience no rebellion of their will or appetites to
disturb their interior peace. This is one of the
principal rewards which God has promised to virtue.
"Much peace have they that love thy law, and to them
there is no stumbling-block." (Ps. 118:165). "Oh!
That thou hadst hearkened to my commandments; thy
peace had been as a river, and thy justice as the
waves of the sea." (Is. 48:18). Peace is here
represented by the prophet under the figure of a
river, because it extinguishes the fire of
concupiscence, moderates the ardor of our desires,
fertilizes the soil of our heart, and refreshes our
soul. Solomon no less clearly asserts this same
truth: "When the ways of man shall please the Lord,
he will convert even his enemies to peace." (Prov.
16:7). He will convert his enemies, the sensual
appetites and passions, to peace, and by the power of
grace and habit He will subject them to the spirit.
Virtue meets with much opposition in its first
efforts against the passions, but as it begins to be
perfected, this opposition ceases and its course
becomes calm and peaceful. The truth of this is most
keenly realized by the just in their practices of
piety. They cannot but contrast their present peace
with the restless fears and jealousies to which they
were a prey when they served the world. Now that
they have given themselves to God and placed all
their confidence in Him, none of these alarms can
reach them. Their calm resignation to His will has
wrought such a change in them that they can hardly
believe themselves the same beings. In truth, grace
has transformed them by creating in them new hearts.
Can we, then, be surprised that such souls enjoy a
peace which, the Apostle says, surpasses all
understanding? He who enjoys this favor cannot but
turn to the Author of so many marvels and cry out
with the prophet, "Come and behold ye the works of
the Lord, what wonders he hath done upon earth,
making wars to cease even to the ends of the earth.
He shall destroy the bow, and break the weapons; and
the shields he shall burn in the fire." (Ps.
45:9-10). What, then, is more beautiful, more worthy
of our ambition, than this peace of soul, this calm
of conscience, which is the work of grace and the
privilege of virtue? As one of the twelve fruits
of the Holy Ghost, peace is the effect of virtue and
its inseparable companion. It is one of those
blessings which give us on earth many of the joys of
Heaven. For the Apostle tells us, "The kingdom of God
is not meat and drink; but justice, and peace, and
joy in the Holy Ghost." (Rom. 14:17). According to
the Hebrew version, justice here means the perfection
of virtue, which, together with its beautiful fruits,
peace and joy, gives the just a foretaste of eternal
happiness. If you would have still further proof that
this peace flows from virtue, hear the words of the
prophet: "The work of justice shall be peace, and the
service of justice quietness and security for ever."
(Is. 32:17). A second cause of this peace is the
liberty which the just enjoy. This liberty is gained
by the triumph of the nobler part of the soul over
the inferior appetites, which, after they have been
subjugated, are easily prevented from causing any
disturbance. The great spiritual consolations which
we considered in a preceding chapter form another
source of this peace. They soothe the affections and
appetites of the flesh by making them content to
share in the joys of the spirit, which they
afterwards begin to relish as the sovereign sweetness
of God becomes better known. Seeking, therefore, no
other delights, they are never disappointed, and
consequently never feel the attacks of anger. The
happy result of all this is the reign of peace in the
soul. Finally, this great privilege proceeds from
the just man's confidence in God, which is his
comfort in all trials and his anchor in all storms.
He knows that God is his Father, his Defender, his
Shield. Hence, he can say with the prophet, "In peace
in the selfsame I will sleep and I will rest; for
thou, O Lord, singularly hast settled me in hope."
(Ps. 4:9-10).
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