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제목 Sermon by rev. father Ferrer, Quasimodo Sunday 2026 Seoul
작성자 관리자 작성일 2026-04-13

1. ”Jesus appeared in the midst of them and said to them, Peace be with you.” In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

2. God our Lord is the God of peace. Two great spiritual directors with two very different methods or styles, St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis de Sales, say the same thing: "A sign that it is God who is in the soul is peace and tranquility in that soul. Anxiety, disturbance and restlessness are of the enemy.”

3. But how can we distinguish the peace of Christ from the peace of the world? Because the world also preaches its own kind of peace. And many are confused, some are ignorant, of how God works in the soul. Some Catholics are worldly and think that the peace given by the world comes from God. How to distinguish?

4. Let us see then, what is peace? What do the holy Doctors of the Church say? What is Catholic doctrine regarding this? St. Francis de Sales says that peace is the perfection of joy, it is joy without disturbance, it is stability in joy.

5. St. Thomas Aquinas, who follows St. Augustine, on the other hand, says that peace is tranquility in order. Two Doctors of the Church, the best director of souls and the best theologian. Are they 2 definitions of peace or what? Are St. Francis and St. Thomas talking 

6. Peace is tranquility in order. But of what order? Man is a creature of God, and according to the Creator's design, he is composed of soul and body, and is a social being.

7. Hence St. Thomas says that in man order is threefold: of man with respect to himself, of man with respect to God, and of man with respect to his neighbor. As can be seen, the order of the soul with respect to God is the cause of the other two orders.
Therefore in man there must be a threefold peace: one by which he is at peace in himself, without disturbance of his faculties, without disturbance of the lower part of nature with respect to the noble part; another peace by which man has peace with God, submitting himself totally to his dispositions; the third peace is with respect to his neighbor.

8. Therefore, in order to have this threefold peace, three things must be ordered in us: the understanding, the will, and the affectivity or sensitive appetite, also called the feelings.

9. The will must be subject to the reason or intellect, the affections, sentiments and passions must be subject to the will and the understanding, and then the spirit itself —both reason and will— must be subject to God.

10. When Our Lord says “My peace I give to you. I do not give it to you as the world gives it to you", Jesus distinguishes his peace from the peace of the world.

11. In 3 things the peace of Christ is distinguished from the peace of the world:
First as to the intention. The peace of the world is ordered to the quiet and peaceful possession and enjoyment of temporal and perishable things. The peace of the saints, on the other hand, is ordered to eternal goods.

12. Some might say: ”But father, I also have the right to enjoy the legitimate joys of this life." Yes, agreed. There’s nothing wring with that. But let's not make the mistake thinking that that means you can have compromises with the world. What is it to have compromises with the world? It's not about seeing how far I can and from where I can't. “If it’s not a mortal sin then that’s ok even though it goes against pleasing God”. 

13. That spirit is not Christian at all. Being a Catholic is about putting all that we are and all that we have at God's service for God's sake. By having all things ordered with respect to God, we no longer need to worry about how we are going to enjoy the legitimate joys of this life. It comes out on its own. God himself takes care of that for us.

14. Second, as to simulation and truth. This is because the peace of the world is simulated and only exists on the outside. But the peace of Christ is interior and exterior.

15. And that is why the peace of the world is the peace of the conquered. The more we yield to the flesh, to the passions and to the joys of this world, even the legitimate ones, the more they will demand from us. That kind of peace is false. The peace of Christ is the peace of a victor: first he engages in battle to submit everything to reason and reason to Christ. Outward peace is a consequence of inward peace.

16. Third, in terms of perfection. And this is because the peace of the world is imperfect, it is not even true peace because it is only true with regard to the exterior rest of man and not of the interior; but the peace of Christ calms interiorly and exteriorly.

17. It can be seen that peace is not a virtue but the effect of a virtue, the virtue that unites us with God, which is Charity. And Charity, in turn, is the love of God above all things and above all else. In other words, in other words, there is true peace only if there is true Charity, if there is true love of God. Why? Because man is made for God, he is made to find God, he is made to find himself in God.

18. Now the question is: how to achieve peace, where does peace come from, what is the source of peace? St. Francis de Sales points out what are the sources of peace. Let's look at the two main ones.

19. First, it is humility. Peace is the effect of Charity which is the love of God. The human heart cannot have two contrary loves at the same time. If so, one is true and the other is feigned. Self-love is incompatible with Charity. Self-love consequence is that we love ourselves to the point of despising God. Charity is the love of God to the point of despising ourselves.

20. That is why we can understand what some of the Saints says elsewhere: "A proud man is the most unhappy. He who always succeeds in doing what he wants is the one who has neither peace nor happiness".

21. With humility it is already possible to despise criticism and slander and from this, peace. For the greater part of insults are better rejected by the contempt in which they are held than by any other means; shame is then for the offender and not for the offended, as St. Francis says in another place.

22. Another source of peace is the abnegation of one's will and the mortification of desires. The Romans used to say, "Si vis pacem, para bellum.” Which means: If you want peace, prepare for war. But war with whom? With self-love, the self-love that makes us not want to submit to God, which is the reason why we cannot submit our nature to reason either.

23. That is why many do not advance in the spiritual life. Because they lack discipline, which can only be achieved by mortification of the spirit. God can send us every day a torrent of graces. Grace elevates nature, says St. Thomas, but he also says that if nature is not sufficiently disposed, nothing will happen. And what is it that disposes it? Discipline.

24. ”The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed..." Yes, all right. But if the soil has not been tilled, the seed of God’s grace suffocates.

25. The sacrifices that we can make or offer to God are useless if what moves them is not Charity but self-love. And that is the source of duplicity, of appearing instead of being. Without mortifying the will and desires, good works are not done out of Charity but out of vanity. And vanity is not a source of peace. 

26. The soul, in order to have peace, needs to look good to God and for God, not to look good to others. Not even to look good in the eyes of one’s own conscience. Without discipline it is impossible to acquire true and lasting virtues. Without virtues there is no joy, and peace even less.

27. Without discipline the motives for good works are usually self-love and vain complacency. Hence all duplicity and pretense.

28. Our Lord has spoken wisely when He said, “If any of you wish to be my disciple, deny thyself, take up thy cross, and follow me."

29. Hence the definition of peace given by St. Augustine: "Peace is serenity of spirit, tranquility of soul, simplicity of heart, the union of love and in love, the bond of charity."

30. A soul with the peace of Christ is a soul with a simple heart for it has only one love, charity, and only one characteristic, humility. From peace is born simplicity of heart and that is seen in holy souls—they are simple souls. A soul at peace is a simple soul. Only simple hearts can crave and even digest spiritual milk, as today's Introit says: "As newborn babes (i.e. as simple souls), crave sincerely the pure milk of the spirit.” Those whose hearts are not simple enough, suffer indigestion and so God’s grace does not grow, much less bear fruit.