Peace of Heart: Translator’s Introduction
It hardly seems necessary to say so, but peace is the absence of conflict. Paradoxically, we have to struggle for peace in our lives. But peace is a Person, the Prince of Peace, Jesus. In him there is no division, no conflict. His loves are all ordered, he came to do the will of the Father, and he does it. He is the source of our peace. In St John’s Gospel (14:27) he tells us, “Peace I give you, my peace I leave you, not as the world gives it. So do not be anxious and afraid.” “Peace be with you!”, says the risen Christ to his disciples, when they are anxious, worried, trying to understand, to believe. So peace is a gift of the Lord, fruit of his Resurrection – but it comes after his Passion and Death, from the Paschal mystery. In every Mass, that mystery is renewed; so the Mass is our source of peace. “Peace be with you”, says a bishop, as he begins the Mass; “And with your spirit” replies the congregation. So peace is not a one-way traffic: it
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