Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

Today’s Gospel lesson from Luke has Jesus warning his disciples about anxiety.

Rather than identifying a negative emotion (“just try to let go”), Jesus identifies anxiety with misplaced priorities: caring more about earthly comforts than about his kingdom. It seems that the opposite to this anxiety, then, should be a peaceful pursuit of God’s kingdom.

How does one acquire the peace implied in the lesson?

I am afraid that the answer may dissatisfy those who think peace a matter of interior belief, on the one hand, or those who suppose it is a matter of purely external action.

In the first place, peace, which is understood as a gift from God, is not achieved simply by means of digesting correct internal ideas about God, for the truths we articulate have an eschatological, which is to say, an incomplete dimension.

On the other, peace will not come from a simple program of social action, because such programs tend to confuse cause and effect.

Please don’t misunderstand me: I do not wish to undermine truth as an objective reality, nor the importance of social justice. Rather, peace is the gift of God to those who seek and encounter him.

St. Seraphim of Sarov instructed, “Acquire the spirit of peace and thousands around you will be saved.” Such an emphasis puts our focus on God as Personal Being (Father) whose grace is given as a gift (the Spirit) as we participate in Christ (the Son).

Peace comes to us as we seek for God, not as we think he is, but as he reveals himself. St. Seraphim associated it with a faithful response to God’s grace: our prayers, gentleness, joy, non-judgement, and silence. 

This message lives in the music of Arvo Pärt—which through ascetic means, points to God as the author of peace.

Yours,

—Justin