I stepped aside and allowed the elderly gentleman wearing a protective respiratory mask to enter the elevator to the parking garage first. I was at UCLA visiting a parishioner and he was leaving his follow up appointment from the heart replacement surgery he had only one week earlier. He disputed the move with me at first because he insisted, “You must be in a rush Father, you have very important things to do.” I told him, “No, I’m trying to keep cool and calm, providing a more peaceful existence. Eliminates stress.” His response was very complimentary, “Good lesson to learn, I wish I heard those words years ago. I was always in a rush and it was that frazzled lifestyle that landed me here.”
We often find ourselves rushing from one task to another, hurrying through our day to complete a task list that never ends. To what avail? This hurried lifestyle, at least in my experience, has not contributed to my spiritual development, but rather fuels the vices that lead to sin. The goal of the Christian life is to seek righteousness and imitate Christ. Our Lord’s first statement to His disciples after His resurrection was, “Peace be with you.” To develop spiritually we must establish a presence of peace.
In the Divine Liturgy of the Orthodox Church we are instructed to find peace, be at peace, to leave in peace, and pray in peace at least 12 times. It is peace that assists us in our ambition to depart from the deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Attacking these seven passions with a spirit of peace deflates the energy and control these vices have over us.
Whenever we feel overcome with the sins of lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride an appeal for God’s Grace and Peace to surround us will extinguish the flames of these iniquities leading us to a deeper relationship with Christ. The desire for peace, even in times of anxiety, stress, and sorrow, gives us the ability to reset our minds and hearts towards God.
Being strengthened and encouraged by the peace given to him by Christ after our Lord’s resurrection, Peter writes in his letter, “The one who desires life, to love and see good days, must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. He must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it. (Peter 3:10-11)” The great saint and disciple, Peter, who during the arrest and crucifixion of Christ was so overwhelmed with fear that he denied the Lord (and of course later repented of this) gains strength through the peace he receives from Christ. Like Peter let us, too, find strength from the peace of God and turn from evil and continually pursue a life of peace.
