KEEPING THE PEACE
As we begin a New Year, peace is probably uppermost on our minds because of the endless violence we see across the world, which is highlighted in the media. The conflict in the Holy Land has reached its one hundredth day and the war in the Ukraine trundles on to mention but two areas of violent conflict. Perhaps it is good to reflect that violence and it’s horrendous aftermath are sadly always with us. Therefore, the beginning of 2024 is no different to earlier New Years. At times I have found the current conflicts in the world quite overwhelming, making me feel powerless and my oblation almost pointless in the wake of all the suffering I see on my television screen. However, my oblation is not pointless because it important to continually pray for peace in a spirit of hope and to also pray for healing for the victims of violence as well as practically supporting efforts to provide humanitarian aid.
It is also important to remember that Jesus’ own time was an age of senseless violence and cruelty most searingly evidenced in His own crucifixion. Yet in this sublime act of selfless love, Jesus counters and conquers over the cruelty of man’s inhumanity to man. The barbarity we see on our screens has been dealt with by Jesus’s saving action on the cross and has been transformed by His resurrection. We must believe this and hope in this and as a result rest in the peace which only He can give. The peace which is the ‘still point of the turning world’, as T.S. Eliot describes it in his poem ‘Burnt Norton’. The peace which is infused with Christ’s love for each of us and all suffering humanity.
St Benedict urges us in the Prologue to his Rule to ‘Seek peace and follow after it,’ echoing Psalm 33. In other words, to seek this peace that Jesus is offering us. St Benedict himself also lived in violent times as the Roman Empire crumbled and vandal hordes invaded Italy, almost to the door of his own monastery at Monte Cassino. But in the midst of this he created a community dedicated to seeking peace with God and with each other. A community that was counter cultural to the history of his times.
So we too, as oblates are trying to create our own peace with God and with each other: in our own homes, workplaces, in our relationships and with the world around us by being welcoming and showing honour and respect to others. By pursuing peace in our own lives, therefore, we too are trying to be counter cultural in our own times.
So much of the Rule concerns the preservation of peace within the monastic community and reveals that St Benedict is very much aware of human inclinations that can endanger that peace on a daily basis. Hence he exhorts his community to ‘after a quarrel make peace before the sun sets’ (Rule Chapter 4).
So too our own oblation calls us to attempt to preserve peace in our own lives on a daily basis and to try to counter whatever disrupts our own peace of heart: ambition, selfish pretension, the desire to dominate or even overpower. Most of all, in this our age, to try to avoid the endless distractions and half-truths which social media permeates, which can also disrupt our inner peace.
In his Life of St Benedict, St Gregory remarks that Holy Benedict ‘lived with himself’ because ‘at all times he kept such close watch on his thoughts and actions.’ We must try to emulate him so as to achieve peace of heart in our own lives, to be able to ‘live with ourselves’ too. We have the Holy Rule to assist us in this, especially Chapter 4 ‘On the Tools of Good Works’ and Chapter 7 ‘On Humility’.
As Abbot Donato Ogliari OSB said in his Conference at the Rome Congress last September, ‘For St Benedict, the search for peace inevitably leads one to seek all that is dear to God and to attune oneself to His will.’ In the deepest sense, we have attuned ourselves to God’s will by answering His call to become oblates. However we must continue to seek and attitude ourselves to His will in our everyday lives.
Then our own oblate lives will become a prayer for peace.
Pax
Neil Zoladkiewicz
Oblate of Ealing
