I believe many think of ‘the present evil age’ to be outside of us. It is the environment in which we live.
Perhaps not.
What if ‘the present evil age’ is me? What if it is my actions that cause pain, hurt, even destruction? Would the Gift be different for me? Would I understand peace from an unfamiliar perspective?
If the ‘present evil age’ is really me, and those like me, then the peace I receive by the agency of Jesus Christ sent from God, is a peace unlike anything the world has to offer.
This peace could not be an armistice, truce, or even the imposed ‘peace’ of the military victor.
This is the peace which comes after a rescue from immanent death. This is the peace which comes after confusion is banished and understanding arrives. This is the peace which comes after a crushing debt is fully repaid. This is the peace which comes when horrific news is overcome by unanticipated and welcome developments.
This is the peace of God in Christ Jesus.
What the gospel of Jesus Christ offers us is not a false peace which enables us to avoid the implacable light of judgment, but the grace to courageously accept the bitter truth that is revealed to us; to abandon our inertia, our egoism, and submit entirely to the demands of the Spirit, praying earnestly for help, and giving ourselves generously to every effort asked of us by God.–Thomas Merton
God’s peace does not peacefully coexist with falsehood, sham, or injustice; so God’s peacemakers cannot simply ignore peace-destroying sin and error, any more than a surgeon can simply close up an infection wound: an abscess is bound to develop.–Dennis E. Johnson, Peacemakers
I want neither a blood’n’guts religion that would make Clint Eastwood, not Jesus, our hero, nor a speculative religion that would imprison the Gospel in the halls of academia, nor a noisy, feel-good religion that is a naked appeal to emotion. I long for passion, intelligence, and compassion in a Church without ostentation, gently beckoning to the world to come and enjoy the peace and unity we possess because of the Spirit in our midst.–Brennan Manning
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