PAX: ON PEACE AND BENEDICTINES

St. Benedict was immersed in Scripture; his Rule of life for his monasteries still functions well as a practical and pragmatic guide for living the life in the Gospel of Christ.

St. Benedict knew full well the kind of Pax/Peace that Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 10

34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.

35 For I have come to set a man 'against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

36 and one's enemies will be those of his household.'

37 "Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

38 and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

and again in John 14

27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.

Tis not the peace of protest marches; nor is it the peace without pain nor joy. When Benedictines speak of peace as their by-word, they think on these verses and know that peace from trust in God's Holy Will and abandonment to His Divine Providence. Tis not a good time party nor warm fuzzy feelings though those are not excluded. Both joy and pain are part and parcel of this peace. Tis our attitude toward all of life as Disciples of Jesus : trust in God and His Holy Will as we take up our cross and walk with Him.

St. Teresa of Avila, educated by Benedictines, sums up that peace that "surpasses all understanding":

Let nothing disturb you,
Let nothing frighten you,
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
He who has God
Finds he lacks nothing;
God alone suffices.

That's me away then.