Christ is our peace


Christ is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished the enmity in his flesh (Ephesians 2:14-15). It seemed fitting to us to begin with this apostolic word the letter that we send to your piety, because our soul, like the contents of this letter, yearns for the attainment of peace.

Certainly that peace which is not of this world, as the Lord said (John 14:27), of the peace which is not judged by the things that fall under our senses; of that peace which He Himself brought from Heaven, which, at parting, He gave to His disciples, which, finally, He wants us to keep with the Almighty Father, as He Himself said in His prayer to the Father: “I pray not for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:20-21).

He makes Himself an example to His believers, so that, following Him, we may be united with the same bond of peace.

Certainly, those who had the teaching of this ministry did not place anything above the good of peace; They rejected nothing more than those that oppose peace and breed discord in words and pleasures, being convinced that neither the working of miracles, nor pure virtue united to corporal punishment, nor the distribution of wealth to the poor, nor even martyrdom are of any use if there is no love.

But love, as the divine Apostle describes it in a wonderful way, “does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in the truth, thinks no evil” (1 Corinthians 13:5-6) about one’s neighbor, not only about God, because this would show it to be contrary to virtue.

Saint Germanus of Constantinople

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