St John of the Cross and the gift of peace

How can we foster peace in our world? How can we live with pure hearts that see God in all things, become people with wide open eyes and hearts, not in judgement but compassion? Sr Elizabeth Ruth explores how St John of the Cross and other Carmelite saints learned to live in peace and become peacemakers – men and women of the Beatitudes. Here is a shortened version of the talk she recently gave to the Third Order Secular Carmelites. 

Peace is seen by all our Carmelite spiritual writers as resulting from persevering prayer founded on faith. In one of his letters, St John of the Cross exhorts a nun to prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in these words: ‘Let nothing else matter to you or draw your attention; nothing painful, no unsettling memory… You owe it to your heart to give it this peace and stillness, since your heart is a place where the Spirit is pleased to dwell… Cast your care upon God, for He is taking care of you and will not forget you.’

If anything, we need the gift of peace now more than ever. Our society is in flux, seething with violence of one kind or another. How can we attain inner peace in all this turmoil. The past year has been a time of war in many places, Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, the Middle East, Nigeria and now Iran. People are taking part in violent demonstrations at home on the matter of immigration and the situation in Gaza. There are marches and demonstrations calling out perceived injustices; heated arguments about who is right and who is wrong, demonstrations that are aggressive and divisive. Recently a newly opened Jewish bakery in North London was vandalized even before business began, with graffiti, sprayed red paint, accusations of supporting genocide. Yet the owners have no say in Israeli politics.

Our Carmelite saints can help us examine our hearts and realize that we can do something to live in peace and be peacemakers, men and women of the Beatitudes, not men and women who focus on violence, condemnation, a ‘holier than thou’ attitude that refuses to forgive or try to understand. We must move beyond the first stages of practicing a religion (Christianity) to becoming men and women of the Gospel, living by faith and what faith demands of us in our daily life.

How can we foster peace in our world? How can we live with pure hearts that see God in all things, become people with wide open eyes and hearts, not in judgement but compassion for the abuser as well as the abused, the man and woman in the military as well as the conscientious objector or war wounded. And one way we can do this is by finding our story in the Scriptures where real life is portrayed in all its complexity, yet God is there through it all.

John of the Cross writes to a friend who was herself a Carmelite nun and was worried about what was happening to him: ‘Do not trouble yourself on my behalf for nothing happens that is outside the providence of God. Think on this only, that all is ordained by God. And do you love where there is no love and you shall have love’. We are not helpless before what happens. We can choose our response. Can we pour in love or will we choose blame instead?

The Carmelite Rule bids us meditate day and night on the Law of the Lord, so we can look there and in the lives of our Carmelite saints, especially John of the Cross, for some pointers on peace in the following ways:

• The peace of offering and accepting forgiveness.
• The peace of accepting to be loved, in the way God wants to love us.
• The peace of fully accepting our life and finding in it a story of faith that touches on the divine presence as we look back and discover God in all the turmoil, violence and abuse that we may have already encountered – personally and in society.

In her famous prayer to the Trinity Elizabeth of the Trinity prays; Give peace to my soul. Make it your heaven, your cherished abode, the place of your rest.’

St Therese writing to her sister Celine during their father’s illness says that she should not expect to suffer without sorrow and failure, just as Jesus fell under the cross. Being strong under suffering is not what matter but acceptance and peace in ‘willing what Jesus wills’. If we are at peace, we can give God the space that is otherwise occupied with self, bad memories, resentments, future plans etc.

Therese, Laurence of the Resurrection, Edith Stein and others stress the importance of peace for a life of prayer. It takes away all useless worry about ourselves and life in general, enables us to focus on the present moment where God is always present. God reigns when we are at peace (though not necessarily a felt peace). And true inner peace is the result of faith. Religion alone is not enough.

Finding our own story in Scripture

John of the Cross found the courage and strength to go on [when he was imprisoned] because his faith was nourished by the love of God that he found in Scripture. He had grown from religion to faith in his own way, and so he could believe that God was in his suffering, had a reason for it, that in it God was present. ‘O if only we understood that in Jesus we have everything’ John writes elsewhere. He believed this; and so instead of bemoaning his lot he focused instead on the beauty of nature, the joy of a loving relationship with God in which trust could flourish. He did not waste time cursing his oppressors, filling his mind with poisonous thoughts of revenge. No. ‘God gives, God takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord’. (Job)

Scripture can illuminate each one of us as we discover the story of God’s personal love, unique to ourselves, enabling us to live fully in the present rather than projecting our lives into the future with fear and trepidation or into the past with resentment against our lot in life and the meanness of others.

Stories with which I might identify

Am I in the desert being tested with the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land, yet nourished with manna and water from the rock when I have needed it most?

Am I the person who has committed adultery with other gods or with other persons? God restores lost virginity and makes us new in his acceptance and love.

Am I the prodigal child who continually returns to the Father and knows the joy of forgiveness?

Am I the wounded traveler who has the good Samaritan healing my wounds and binding them up; lovingly taking me to a place of rest and safety, willing to pay the price for my care by shedding his own blood?

Am I the woman reaching out to touch the garment of Jesus with hope and finding myself well again? or the Magdalen, showing my gratitude in the pouring out of my tears and the precious ointment which symbolizes my life?

Am I suffering, shunned, feeling unloved and unrecognized? Then let me remember the suffering servant of Isaiah, the Saviour who accepted for me the shattered face, the bruises and scars of crucifixion? Let that face be for me, as it was for Therese, proof of a love that longs for recognition and whom we can comfort by our own presence and love.

With faith, wherever I look I can find comfort, mercy, the possibility of a second, third and unlimited chances of a new beginning – for myself and for others.

God does not look for perfection but for confidence and trust. He does not promise perpetual sunshine but being there whatever the weather of our souls.