By DON FIER
In last week’s consideration of the sixth Beatitude: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8), we saw that “the organ for seeing God is the heart” (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth [vol. 1], p. 92).
The heart — which is representative of the whole man in biblical language — is the very center of the human person’s affective, moral, and spiritual life. Purity in heart, which indicates that one is unsullied by any trace of self-interest or ulterior motive, is the precondition for the vision of God.
In other words, “the heart — the wholeness of man — must be pure, interiorly open and free, in order for man to be able to see God” (ibid., p. 93). To be truly pure in heart, a man must have left behind all attachment to creatures.
A person who is pure in heart, like St. Paul, is able to declare: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).
Assisted by the supernatural gift of understanding, a person in this stage of the spiritual life has formed his intellect and will to act in total obedience to the demands of God, especially in three areas: charity, chastity, and love of truth (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], n. 2518).
The living out of this Beatitude, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, signals one’s entry into the contemplative life. “The reward given to the pure in heart,” affirms Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, “is a clear faith in the divine mysteries of life, and the promise of the vision of God in the life to come” (The Question and Answer Catechism, n. 867).
The seventh Beatitude: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:8), akin to the Beatitude of the pure in heart, is also associated by the Angelic Doctor with the contemplative life (cf. Summa Theologiae [STh] I-II, Q. 69, art. 3).
As expressed by Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, a soul that has advanced to this point in the spiritual life not only possesses peace, but is able to communicate it to others.
“A contemplative soul does not allow itself to be troubled in its higher part by painful, unexpected events; it receives all from the hand of God as a means or an occasion of approaching closer to Him” (Christian Perfection and Contemplation, p. 334).
He possesses an abiding interior peace that enables him to love his enemies; moreover, it is a radiating peace which leads others to do likewise.
Fr. Hardon maintains that it is abundantly clear in Sacred Scripture that the seventh Beatitude “applies not merely to peaceful people, or even to the peaceable, but to those who actively promote peace, who are, quite literally peacemakers” (Basic Catholic Catechism Course [BCCC], p. 107).
To better understand precisely what this entails, it will be useful to examine the word peace as used in the context of this Beatitude in St. Matthew’s Gospel.
The Greek word for “peace” is eirene (a state of well-being or concord). The Hebrew translation is shalom; in biblical use it most often refers to a state of wellbeing, tranquility, prosperity, and security.
In volume 1 of his commentary on The Gospel of St. Matthew (GSM), William Barclay maintains that in Hebrew the word peace “is never only a negative state. . . . In the Bible peace means not only freedom from all trouble; it means the enjoyment of all good” (p. 108).
St. Augustine’s classical definition of peace is that it is “the tranquility of order” (City of God, book XIX, chapter 13). On this basis, Fr. Hardon defines it as “the quiet or serenity that follows when there is order. Things are in order when they are used according to the purpose intended by God and when the proper means are used to attain a given end” (BCCC, p. 107).
It is important to distinguish between two kinds of interior peace: peace of mind and peace of heart. “Peace of mind,” explains Fr. Hardon, “is the result of knowing the truth. When the mind, which is fashioned for knowing the truth, is used according to the purpose intended by God, it is at peace” (BCCC, p. 108).
But to know the truth (to the extent possible in this life) is not enough. Our actions must also be ordered properly. In other words, having informed our intellects with the truth, our wills must freely choose to act in conformity to that truth. Peace of heart, then, “is the effect of using our free wills to conform our own will to the will of God” (ibid.).
Because God has created us with a free will, it follows from Fr. Hardon’s definition that “the degree of interior peace we experience depends upon the degree to which we choose that which is in conformity to His will” (BCCC, p. 108).
But as we know all too well, the peace Jesus promises comes at a price — nowhere did He say we will not encounter conflict. He was clear in establishing that the peace He offers is not a worldly peace: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27).
Elsewhere, He says: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Matt. 10:34-35).
In our politically correct, “tolerant” society, those who seek the interior peace of heart that only Christ can give will, by that very fact, be ridiculed and despised by the world.
“The poor in spirit,” says Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, “will be hated by those who pursue self-interest; the meek will be opposed by the self-assertive; those who hunger and thirst after justice will be scorned by the indifferent; the merciful will be ridiculed by the unforgiving. . . . The world, whose false peace is based on self-love, will make war against those whose peace is based on conscience” (The Cross and the Beatitudes, pp. 76-77).
Another form of false peace that the seventh Beatitude demands must be guarded against is “the passive acceptance of things because we are afraid of the trouble of doing anything about them” (GSM, p. 109).
In other words, we must not “look the other way” if unjust or immoral behaviors exist in our families, workplace, neighborhoods, and elsewhere in order to avoid conflict.
“The peace which the Bible calls blessed does not come from the evasion of issues; it comes from facing them, dealing with them, and conquering them” (ibid.) in a charitable manner — even if it means that we will be ostracized or persecuted.
At the same time, “it is necessary to distinguish between error, which always merits repudiation,” state the Vatican II fathers, “and the person in error, who never loses the dignity of being a person even when he is flawed by false or inadequate religious notions” (Gaudium et Spes [GS], n. 28 § 2).
“Peace is not merely the absence of war,” teaches the Catechism, “and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity (Isaiah 32:17; cf. GS, n. 78 §§ 1-2)” (CCC, n. 2304).
Fr. Hardon further states that “peacemakers are those persons who love peace and labor to establish peace all around them. They try to heal discord between people and especially seek to reconcile sinners who are estranged from God. Peacemakers strive to promote peace in and amongst others. They assist others in ordering their minds to truth and their wills to God’s will, so they can be peaceable people. Peacemakers are apostles of peace” (BCCC, p. 108).
The gift of the Holy Spirit that is connected with the seventh Beatitude is wisdom. “Wisdom coincides with the peacemakers,” proclaims St. Augustine, “for with peacemakers all things are in proper order, and no passion is in rebellion against reason, but everything is in submission to man’s spirit because that spirit is obedient to God” (Commentary on the Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.4.11).
As expressed by the Angelic Doctor, “It belongs to charity to be at peace, but it belongs to wisdom to make peace by setting things in order” (STh II-II, Q. 45, art. 6, ad 1).
Divine Sonship
The reward promised to those who live out the seventh Beatitude is that they shall be called “sons of God” (Matt. 5:45). “The gift of divine sonship is both a present possession of believers (cf. Romans 8:14-16; 1 John 3:1) and a future hope linked with the resurrection of the body (cf. Romans 8:23) and the glory of eternal life (cf. Rev. 21:7)” (cf. CCC, n. 2305; Ignatius Catholic Study Bible, p. 15).
In the words of Fr. Hardon, “The rewards promised to peacemakers are the grace now of being especially loved by God as His dearest children and the attainment of heavenly glory in eternity” (BCCC, p. 108).
The peace of heart of the seventh Beatitude is precisely what St. Augustine was referring to when he so movingly proclaimed: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you” (Confessions, book 1, chapter 1).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is a Consecrated Marian Catechist.)
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