He Fills Our Hearts With His Peace

He Fills Our Hearts With His Peace

Whenever we cast our cares unto God, He puts His peace in our hearts. It is true: today Jesus reveals to us how the Father does it.

The enemy comes quickly to sow his weeds amid the good seeds of the field and, then, disappears just as quickly. He takes advantage of the darkness of the night and of the tired slaves being fast asleep. He ruins their hard work, then, he vanishes.

The householder though is always there with love for his field. 

He is not there just for the sowing. With his care, foreknowledge and wisdom, he is there throughout, up to harvest’s time. God, the owner of the field of our heart, is also the owner of time and, as such, He is not tempted to be ruled by impatience the way we, His “slaves” are.

Not possessing His wisdom and care, we are often puzzled and confused by what is happening to our hearts. And when we realize that we have failed in our vigilance, and our half-hearted care has led us to fall fast asleep, we are tempted yield to impatience and might try to correct the situation in a hurry without having thought everything through and devised a workable plan of action.

Especially in the last month or so, we have been fast asleep and we thought that the insane, violent displays of intolerance and intimidation would not get too close to us. We were wrong, of course. Now, even after long days of hard work our sleep is not sound, is not fast. Yet, in our bewilderment, we cannot forget that we are simply the “slaves” assigned to God’s field. We must go to Him to be enlightened by His wisdom and follow thoroughly His plan of action that is always marked by patient endurance.

Obviously, the serious spiritual, moral, social and economical evils we are facing collectively and individually are made worse for us by our having to face them in the awful and anxiety-building context of the coronavirus. The first step we take must be always the one of being reassured that the Lord, the divine Householder, has sowed in our hearts the best grain of His Word. The next step should be the one of embracing the Lord’s timetable even though it exposes our impatience and gives us too much time to brood over our past mistakes. 

Yet, as painful as this is, if we let ourselves be guided by God’s wisdom and act according to His timetable, we will learn valuable lessons and we will steer clear of repeating the same mistakes. The Holy Spirit will guide us to proceed always enlightened by Gospel principles and become proactive so that the enemy may not surprise us with other stealth attacks. Not only we will not let our guard down, but we will buy wholeheartedly into God’s plan of action, fully aware that to panic is totally unbecoming of us as God’s “slaves.” 

To give in to panic would prove that we came across something or someone greater and stronger than God Himself!

As we resolve to rule out panic even in very trying situations, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we ready ourselves to bear witness to truth, decency and Christian values.

We choose to be dedicated “slaves” of the Divine Householder who can do much more than simply denounce, judge, label and condemn. We choose to roll up our sleeves and get down to work rather than simply criticize and protest.

Praised be our God, the Divine Householder, because He, the Alpha and the Omega, has all the time in the world! He gives us time and many second chances. In His infinite love, He knows how to wait. Only at the end of time everything will be clear and well separated.

Enlightened by God’s wisdom, we must cease being those obsessed by separation-mania, sifting-mania, labeling-mania. We must stop thinking that here, within these boundaries, is God’s Kingdom; over there is Satan’s. The righteous over here; the reprobate over there. This is all true; that is all false.  Black or white, no shades of gray.

Jesus welcomes, accepts, embraces everyone except those driven by the mania of separation, of being the chosen ones, the elect, the best. He lashes out with unparalleled force against the Pharisees because they think they are untainted good grain. This is the sin which has always plagued the Church.  

Today’s parable forcefully reminds us that it is sheer arrogance to think that God should dispose quickly of the opposition. It is arrogant to tell Him to hurry up and finish off His enemies at once. God and His angels will do the separating according to His timetable.  

Our job is the job of any “slave” of the Divine Householder: to be filled with compassion, acceptance, understanding and bear the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (cf. Galatians 5:22-23)

The presence of weeds in the field of our hearts is the rule, not the exception. The worst concentrations of weeds are usually in the hearts of those who are prone to be judgmental, critical, stern and hard with others. 

As pure grain, Jesus draws close to, befriends and embraces those whom the self-righteous rush to condemn. Let us face it: within each one of us there is this capacity for evil; even for betrayal. The human heart produces both good grain and weeds. Stubbornly denouncing the evil in others could mean refusal to spot the weeds that grow unchecked in our own. 

It could be humbling yet quite revealing for us to list how much love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control we find growing in our heart. The rest is all weeds. 

So, we humble ourselves before our wise and patient Householder. We thank Him for being so understanding, so wise, so patient with us. We ask Him to be so a little longer until, with His grace, we will bear fruits of the Spirit while we rejoice that He is also working in the hearts of those around us to produce quality grain for His Kingdom.

This is how He fills our hearts with His peace. 

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Written by
Fr Dino Vanin