We live in very frightening times. Everybody longs for and begs for peace. There are entire generations who have never known a time of peace. There are people who are forever haunted by violence, threat, and abuse. We are so helpless and so desperate we "buy" the first promise of "peace and order".
The thing is, all that the world offers is a promise of "fragile peace". It is fragile because most often it is bought by violence, by fear, by ignorance. That is not true peace.
The peace that God wants for His children is a "peace that surpasses all understanding". Perhaps that is why we don't buy it. We want peace that is translated as: order in the streets; well-being and prosperity; doing what I want without being accountable to anybody.
You see, our formula for peace is WRONG. It is so egocentric and without any reference to the common good, to what is best for others even if it means sacrifice on my part. The kind of peace that we like is violence-in-the-making. When we are at the center of the world, the world doesn't have any secure and constant point of reference. We see every day how we are prone to wanting one thing today and the exact opposite tomorrow. How then can we make ourselves the point of reference?
We live in very frightening times. But I am a Christian. My faith helps me to look at life with realism, hope and courage. Jesus Christ came to give us life, life to the full. This he did, not by making everything "perfect" according to our human schemes.
Jesus said and showed in His life that the one who loses his life for the Kingdom (and all the values it represents) will find his life a hundredfold. This is what it means to have life to the full.
We may have a long life but it isn't a guarantee that we have found life's meaning.
The saints, yes, those considered fools by worldly standards, found the secret to life's meaning. It was the pearl of great price for which they have renounced everything.
That is why they are called BLESSED.
