Peace

“A secret, an open secret: these world crises are crises of saints. God wants a handful of men 'of his own' in every human activity.” (Saint Josemaria, “The Way”, at 301).

On the Path to Jerusalem (Unknown)

There is an old Arabic saying that goes like this and says, “God will provide”.  My maternal grandmother and my mother used this phrase throughout my life.  They would apply it to a variety of things from the smallest of things – I need a parking spot today, “God will provide”, to something big – my bank account is empty, and I need to pay my mortgage, “God will provide”.

It may sound very simplistic but it was actually a very solid foundation for a life of faith.  When things became too hard to handle or too confronting or too difficult or too big, then I would be able to rely on Someone else.  And who better to rely on other than God?  For when I rely on God that is when I can have peace.

I have been reflecting on the peace that can be found in the world even despite such calamities…  At every stage in history when there was a serious calamity in the world, there was also an unusual activation of Saints.

During the First World War we had the Saints of Fatima, Lucia, Jacinta and Franchesco.  The Blessed Virgin appeared to these children to inspire the world to convert and to ask for prayers for the conversion of sinners.  During the Second World War we had Saint Maximilian Kolby, who died in the place of other prisoners of war during their internment in the Concentration Camps.

Saint Josemaria wrote in “The Way” at 301, “A secret, an open secret: these world crises are crises of saints. God wants a handful of men 'of his own' in every human activity. And then... ‘pax Christi in regno Christi--the peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ’.”

And these are not the only cases of great Saints in times of hardship in the world.  Saints Francis of Assisi and Clare and Agnes and Dominic were contemporaries and lived through some of the most corrupt years of the Roman Catholic Church and during the periods of great trial during the Crusades.

It is a clear sign of God’s love for us that He provides for us even in our necessities.  And one of the ways that He provides for us is by sending us the souls that we need as a witness to faith – and as an example for us – so that we can learn from these souls and take heart and have hope in God.

And it is that hope that brings peace.  It is one thing to face a problem and feel overwhelmed by it and quite another thing altogether to understand that those worries and fears of this world are not ours to own, and are instead an invitation to trust in God and have hope in faith in Him, by observing the witness of the Saints...

And as this years rolls quietly to an end, I pray for the wisdom to see the Saints in all the turmoil. For only then will I experience the PEACE that God is sending to me.

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.