Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall
be called sons of God.
In this
Beatitude we continue our climb toward perfection.
Gregory
says,
All that the Divine Word has so far laid down
is indeed perfectly holy. But what we are now' invited to contemplate is truly
αδυτον, and the Holy of Holies. For if the blessedness of seeing God cannot be
surpassed, to become the son of God transcends bliss altogether… If you call
that which the Beatitude promises good, or glorious, or sublime, yet what is
made known is something more than these words mean: it is fulfillment that outstrips
prayer, gift surpassing hope, grace transcending nature...
How can one give thanks worthily for such a
gift? With what words, what thoughts that move our mind can we praise this
abundance of grace? Man transcends his own nature, he who was subject to
corruption in his mortality, becomes immune from it in his immortality, eternal
from being fixed in time–in a word, a god from a man. For if he is made worthy
of becoming a son of God, he will possess in himself the dignity of the Father
and be made heir of all the Father's goods. How munificent is this rich Lord!
How generously He opens His Hands wide to give us His ineffable treasures!
Through His love of man He brings our nature, dishonored by sin, to an honor
that almost equals His own.
If we were
to obtain all the benefits available to us in this world; riches, good health,
friends, all kinds of pleasures, etc.; what would it mean if peace were
missing.
Gregory
says,
Therefore peace itself is sweet to enjoy, and
sweetens all that is held dear in life. And even if we suffer any human
misfortune, as long as there is peace the evil is borne more easily, because it
is mixed with some good; but if life is haunted by war, we become in a way
insensible even to our own occasions of grief. For the common calamity is
greater than the individual causes of pain…
By this, therefore, one can see how greatly
He loves man, that He bestows the precious reward not on pains and sweat, but,
so to speak, on the enjoyment of happiness. Peace is indeed the greatest of the
joy-giving things; and this He wishes each of us to have in such measure as to
keep it not only for himself, but to be able to dispense from the overflow of
his abundance also to others.
Now who
is a peacemaker? This is a person who “gives peace to another.” To be able to
give peace to another you must first have peace in yourself. Therefore God
wants us to be filled with the blessings of peace so we can then pass it on to
others.
What is
peace?
Gregory
says,
Surely it is nothing else but a loving
disposition towards one's neighbor. Now what is held to be the opposite of
love? It is hate and wrath, anger and envy, harboring resentment as well as
hypocrisy and the calamity of war. Do you see for how many different diseases
this single word is an antidote? For peace is equally opposed to every one of
the things mentioned, and wipes out these evils by its own presence. Just as
illness vanishes when health supervenes, and as no darkness is left when light
begins to shine, so also when peace appears, all the passions connected with
its opposite are eliminated.
Gregory
asks us to focus on all the passions associated with hate. He say the the
passions of the devil appear in those dominated by wrath.
He says,
For when the passion lays hold of a man and
the heart-blood bolls over, when wrath, as they say, makes the black gall
diffuse itself throughout the body, then all the senses that are placed in the
head are affected with cramp by the compression of the internal vapors. The
eyes protrude from under their confining lids, staring bloodshot like dragons
at the offending object; the inside is compressed, panting for breath, the
veins III the throat swell and the tongue thickens...
The evils
of wrath are obvious and one who prevent such actions are truly blessed. But
still worse, he says, is envy and hypocrisy because they are hidden deep in a
man’s heart.
Gregory
says,
It is cherished secretly in the depth of the
heart, like a hidden fire, while externally everything is made to look
deceptively like friendship. It is like a fire that is hidden under chaff. For
a time it smolders inside and burns only what lies near; the flame does not
flare up visibly, only a biting smoke penetrates, because it is so vigorously
compressed from within.
We never
know when this will bust out causing great harm. This is the story of an
envious Cain who murdered Able who received praise. The envy within commanded
the murder, but hypocrisy became its executioner, says, Gregory.
Those who
have obtained a pure heart, who are able to imitate the Divine love of others
and who exemplify the Divine energies of God are truly blessed.
Gregory concludes,
I think that man is called a peacemaker par
excellence who pacifies perfectly the discord between flesh and spirit in
himself and the war that is inherent in nature, so that the law of the body no
longer wars against the law of the mind, but is subjected to the higher rule
and becomes a servant of the Divine ordinance.
Source: http://orthodoxwayoflife.blogspot.com.by/2009/09/7th-beatitude-blessed-are-peacemakers.html
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