The peace of the angels; Angels: Day 284

St. Augustine’s advice to soldiers: Peace is your goal, and everything you do must work toward it. The peace we desire on earth is only a shadow of that peace God gives the angels now and will give us after our trials here.

Think, then, of this first of all, when you are arming for the battle: that even your bodily strength is a gift of God. If you think about this, you will not employ the gift of God against God. For, when faith is pledged, it is to be kept even with the enemy against whom the war is waged. And how much more with the friend for whom the battle is fought!

Peace should be the object of your desire; war should be waged only as a necessity, and waged only that God may by it deliver people from the necessity and preserve them in peace. For peace is not sought in order to stir up war, but war is waged in order that peace may be obtained. Therefore, even in waging war, cher- ish the spirit of a peacemaker, so that, by conquering those whom you attack, you may lead them back to the advantages of peace; for our Lord says: “Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God” (Matt. 5:9). But if peace among humans is so sweet because it gives us safety in this world, how much sweeter is that peace with God that gives us the eternal happiness of the angels!

Let necessity, therefore, and not your will, slay the enemy who fights against you. As violence is used towards him who rebels and resists, so mercy is due to the vanquished or the captive, especially in the case in which future troubling of the peace is not to be feared. –St. Augustine, Letter 189

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

As a citizen, what am I doing to promote the peace the angels know in Heaven among nations, among neighbors, and in the Church?

CLOSING PRAYER

Lord, I beseech you, make me an instrument of your peace, and keep the example of your holy angels in Heaven before my eyes.