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Á¦¸ñ The World has Lost Peace of Christ(Feast of Pentecost, 2019-06-09)
ÀÛ¼ºÀÚ °ü¸®ÀÚ ÀÛ¼ºÀÏ 2019-06-10



The World has Lost Peace of Christ(Feast of Pentecost, 2019-06-09)


 On the feast of Pentecost in 1954 Pope Pius XII, in his radio message to the world, showed the anxiety he felt at the trend of affairs then, and things have not improved since he spoke. The men of this earth, who should be disciples of Christ, and to whom He came with the message 'peace on earth to men of good will' and who left it with the phrase: my peace I leave with you, is destroying itself with warfare of all kinds.  Yes, not just military warfare, but the worst kind of warfare¡¦War on the Moral laws of Our Lord.


 Why?  Christ did not merely desire peace, He gave it to us. Why, therefore, do we not enjoy it? If we search the Scriptures we find a reason: There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord God (Isaias 57. 21) 
 

 The cause of the lack of peace in the world can be no other than the loss of the peace of Christ. Let us see in what that peace consists = Peace consists in the tranquillity of order, says St Thomas, following the teaching of St Augustine; 
 

 Tranquillity is another word for ¡°restfulness¡± or a perfect calmness. Order is when everything/everyone is in there correct and appropriate place. So, if he put these two elements together, we can see that ¡°Peace¡± arrives with the tranquility of order.
 

 And this peace comes to us when we know love and serve God. If we know our appropriate place and correct ordering of our lives, then all this brings peace.
 

 Sin is the opposite of this peace – because Sin is a disorder¡¦it does not bring rest but rather unrest and anxiety and death.  For example, if true order reigns in the family, loving authority in the father, loving subjection in the mother and obedience in the children, then the peace in which that family lives is something admired by all. But once disorder is introduced at any level then there are disturbances of all kinds.
 

But what about peace in the world?  What is necessary?


(a) Universal peace demands order in all its component parts:

 
i. order within ourselves, the subordination of the passions to reason and intellect. -otherwise there can be no peace in the individual himself;


ii. order in the relations of men between themselves, the observance of the restrictions imposed on all by justice and authority, etc. otherwise civil and class war is bound to arise.


iii. the order of all actions to God, recognizing him as supreme Lord and legislator.


 3. What is the essence of Christian peace?


(a) St Thomas says that it comes from charity, firstly the love of God and then the love of the neighbor for God's sake.  Without this true love, there can be no real and lasting peace.


The world has lost the peace of Christ – how?


 In the last century, and even now, we are fast approaching a social order in which the government takes the place of God. The principles of family morality, the sanctity of marriage, etc., have been openly violated-and these are the fundamental principles of the social life of the mankind itself. Freedom of religion has been proposed as a natural right = a thing unheard of in sound Catholic theology.  Errors which destroy the life of grace in souls should have no rights!


The solution: It has been repeated by the Popes time and again:


(a) We must ask the Holy Ghost to repeat the miracle of Pentecost and enkindle once more the fire of charity in the hearts of men.


(b) The world and the individuals in it must return to the love and service of the King of Peace, Our Lord Jesus Christ.


(c) Each one of us must co-operate in his or her own way towards this, each in his own life and sphere of action. It may be a long drawn out task and apparently hopeless, but we must heed Christ's words, a little leaven in the bread dough can change the whole mass. Each one must convert himself-then we may see the conversion of the world to the peace of Christ.


 Therefore, my dear faithful, let us not forget the many graces that come to us on this great feast day of Pentecost, one of the greatest feasts of the entire year.  This feast day is the completion of the liturgical year covering the life and work of Our Lord Jesus Christ¡¦His Birth, Life, Passion, Death, Resurrection, Ascension into heaven, and then finally He sends the Holy Ghost to come and dwell with us and sanctify us.

 

Patrick Summers(District Superior, Asia of SSPX)