False Peace – What Is That?

Being About Peace -- On the day I became a secular final oblate of St. Benedict in 2014, the monks and oblates greeted me with their congratulations. Some of us said "Pax" to each other which is Latin for peace. The Pax greeting has been used for about 1500 years by the Benedictine brothers. So, I wonder about the meaning when I say peace.

St. Catherine of Sienna, my name saint, worked hard for peace. And in the 1960s we discussed our name saints in our Catechism class. Our teacher gifted me (with mom's permission of course) a teardrop peace-sign necklace to wear to promote peace. It was my mantle. These days I wear my Blessed St. Benedict Medal, which has Pax written on the back.

While I'm singing "peace on Earth", it's heartfelt. So is being about peace enough of a meaning while saying peace? Francis Cardinal George, OMI wanted true peace for us very much. Dorothy Day, Servant of God, our Abbey‘s most famous oblate wanted peace, too.

A false greeting of peace -- what is that really? False peace is perfidious. It’s giving the impression that all is well, while deceit is underfoot. Heralding peace, yet there's no peace, such as described in the book of Jeremiah in the Bible.

Now, I know what anger is. We count to ten and try not lose our temper, even kids know that. So everyone gets to work on that anger thing, right? And no grudge-holding, I would like to think I’ve mastered that one. Christians shouldn't be planning to do devilish things anyway. Not giving into those shells of false peace seems easy: Don't say peace and at the same time be a hater. However, it's gets deeper than that.

Saying peace to be prudently polite, or not realizing we gave false peace,isn't really the point here. It's much worse, it’s a fake peaceful feeling while doing wrong. Having permission of the Church, such as cohabitation with communion, isn't false peace, but thinking we're not sinners would be. Not fearing God, or a poorly formed conscience, may give a superficial peaceful feeling.

The world really needs true peace. Retaliation is hurting the world, so working toward peace may seem too heavy. We need Jesus to help us with His peace. We need our Mother Mary, the Saints and Angels to help peace settle on the Earth.

Each time we hear or read about an unpeaceful place, we could ask a name saint to please pray to the Lord to send true peace there.

Thank you God for your Love. Please send us true peace.

Thanks to the Rule of St. Benedict for May 20th.