THE TRUE PEACE
Fr. Simon Hoa

Everybody desires peace. But how do we have the true peace? There are different ways that each of us chooses for oneself. Nevertheless, when one chooses wrong ways, one never has the true peace for oneself and never brings the peace to the others   

Some people thinks that to have peace, you must have money. But the experiences in life make us know that money doesn't  bring peace to us. In reality we need money to live, to use in our life, to create the happiness, then money can bring peace to us. But sometimes money causes a lot of suffering, of trouble in the family and in society. The money causes wars, the violence in the community, in the family and in the society, and even in the Chuch. The money is the means , not the purpose.  It is a good servant, but a bad master . When it serves us it is good, but when it orders us, directs us, it is bad. Then we become its slave. When money dominates over the people, people will cause the terrible consequences for the humanity, it doesn't let humanity live in peace. Past experiences in life makes us know that.

Some people think to have peace people must use weapons to solve problems, to get peace in the world. Ciceron said, "wanting the peace, prepare the war" But the more there are a lot of wars the more there are a lot of troubles.  The world wars demonstrated that the wars didn't bring the peace to people, but the suffering. Weapons don't make people live but make people die.  As long as one wants to use weapons one will lose the peace.

People think, also, that power can build the peace. That is why people didn't stickle to use the violence in the family, in the society. But that didn't create peace, but fearfulness.

The money, the weapon and the power cannot create the peace in the world. Why not? Because all these are the things that serve the selfishness of people. As long as people bielive in selfishness, people only pull humanity into death.   

So, what can create peace for people? love. Only love can bring peace for each of us. Only love has the possibility to free people from the selfishness.  That is why we see that there are a lot of organizations for charity in the world. Many volunteers have served others, many congregations have taken care of the poor and the sick.... But how can we have in ourselves love like that? How can we have the sacrifice without selfishness?  We only get that when we have Jesus Christ in us. Only when Jesus dwells in us, then we are able to build peace. Amen, saint Paul said, "Jesus is our peace" (Ep 2,14) The true peace is in Christ. And why is Jesus the true peace? Because he lives the love in full.  He doesn't live for Him, but for the Father and each of us. He died for the love of God and us. He died and rose from death so that we have His Peace. Each time that he appeared to his disciples, He said to them, " peace be with you" (Jn 20,19) The peace of Jesus only comes to us through His death and resurrection. Without His death and resurrection we would never have true peace. Peace only comes from the Cross of Jesus. So, Jesus died so that we have what he has. This is the mystery of salvation. Salvation consists in the unity between Jesus and us, that is, Jesus and we are one.  When Jesus and we are one, the peace of Jesus becomes our true peace. When we have the true peace we will become peace for the others.