When a man reads about news of any kind, he is transported away from his immediate reality into things he cannot control. He is often disturbed within himself. He may be agitated, anxious, or wrathful. His heart is disturbed, which can affect his intellect and will. He can be tempted to pusillanimity—which is a failure to do what lies in your power (II-II q133 a1)—or despair, which is conforming your intellect and will to a denial of God’s goodness and power (II-II q20, a1, 3). Both of these vices are related to sloth and effeminacy (II-II q138 a1). Hence a man must first understand that these disordered movements of the heart lead him to vice and sin and are thus tools of the Devil to destroy his soul. Thus he must fight manfully against these inclinations.
Now peace is defined as “tranquility of order” in which “all the appetitive (emotional) movements in one man are set at rest together” (II-II q29 a1). And whereas the former vices are a result of sloth, peace is the result of charity which is union with God (Ibid., a3). When we advance in charity for God, our emotional life is quieted because our soul is properly ordered, with reason and will governing our emotional life so that it is properly expressed. Thus our reason guides us to become angry when anger is proper, but it also moderates the pleasures of wrath by meekness, so that we seek a just vindication, not an excess of cruelty (cf. II-II q158 a1). And if we have a virtuous anger, it is with tranquility of heart and peace of mind. Since your peace is proportionate to your charity, any lack of peace is evidence of a lack of charity and holiness. So pick up your cross.
Keeping your Peace
Dom Scupoli states that “The whole and principle business of your life must consist in continually quieting your heart, and never letting it go astray.”[1] For truly when a heart is perfected in charity, there is nothing which can disquiet it because it is united to the One Uncreated and Unmoved. As it is written, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee (Is. xxvi. 3) and again
Our God is our refuge and strength. Therefore we will not fear, when the earth shall be troubled; and the mountains shall be removed into the heart of the sea (Ps. xlv. 2-3).
The wisdom of the saints says that the way in which we must obtain this peace is through rejecting every created consolation—even spiritual consolation—and clinging to God alone. Thus we embrace suffering because it blesses us with the detachment needed to achieve inner peace. Scupoli:
You must toil and make every effort, especially at the beginning, to embrace tribulation and adversity as your dear sisters—desiring to be despised by all, and to have no one who entertains a favorable opinion of you, or brings you comfort, but your God.[2]
We must continually embrace suffering until we come to a place where we actually desire it because we know what great help it is to charity and union with God.
Mr. Dan Burke said in one of his classes that the differences between the Three Ages of the Interior life in regards to sufferings are as follows:
[Pre-Purgative / out of state of grace - avoid suffering by some form of inebriation]
* Purgative - learning to accept suffering
* Illuminative - embrace suffering
* Unitive - seek suffering
It is thus that we must approach all things in God’s Providence—with a great desire to suffer, a desire to be united to Christ and Him Crucified. Let a man examine himself and see whether his peace is disturbed by reading the news or investigating controversy. If he is disturbed, let him drop everything and come back to the Lord, fighting strenuously against the temptations toward effeminacy and embracing the cross. It is unwise to enter battle before one is properly prepared to fight and overcome. Therefore attend to your soul, lest it be lost on the Day of Judgment. Abide in charity with God and acquire peace and detachment before you engage with these lesser matters.
Fighting from the Heart
And yet, St. Thomas also says (I-II q24 a1) that man must be moved to the good not only by his intellect and will, but also by his heart, as the New Catechism says, citing the Summa:
Moral perfection consists in man’s being moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite, as in the words of the psalm: “My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” [Ps. lxxxiii. 2] (1770).
Therefore our whole being – intellect, will, and heart – must rest in the peace of Christ from the truth of Christ. The only way to fight with the heart of a man of God is to hide your heart in the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Here alone is your refuge. Here alone is your peace. Here alone is your very life.
Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on us!
[1] Lorenzo Scupoli, Of Interior Peace or the Path to Paradise contained within The Spiritual Combat(Scriptoria Books: 2012), 163.
[2] Ibid., 165.
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