Faith Filled Friday: The Nature of Christ’s Peace

I came across this striking quote in the October 2025 issue of Magnificat (Vol. 27, No.8) in one of the meditations (p. 280-1) by the Mexican mystic and spiritual writer Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida who is sometimes referred to as Blessed Conchita.  According to her Wikipedia entry, she was a prolific writer.  This quote comes from a book she wrote on meditating on the nature of Jesus, both on His human and divine natures, What Jesus is Like.  I’ve put that book in my cart for a future purchase.  Looks like a great advent read.

 

Fr. Mark Goring tells us a little about Blessed Conchita as he describes another of her books.

 

Here is this most notable quote.

 

Peace is not something negative: a lack of conflict.  It is rather something positive: a glimpse of heaven, a beam of tranquility, a ray of God’s own happiness.  The calm that comes from peace is not transitory, but something that is permanent and immortal, like a day when the sun does not set…. The person who is at peace is like a lake that is perfectly serene.  A lake in which God is reflected, in which Jesus the God-Man is imaged.  To achieve that peace, that serenity, one needs a profound humility, a great purity of heart, a tranquil conscience, and a trusting love…. Suffering which we willingly accept brings us peace.  It makes us like him.

            -Blessed Concepción Cabrera de Armida 

First, the notion that peace is a positive value rather than a negative runs counter to our temporal minds.  We envision peace coming after conflict and turmoil, such as after war or some great disturbance.  But I think she’s got that right.  War and turmoil take peace away.

Second, she tries to describe what that peace is: “a glimpse of heaven, a beam of tranquility, a ray of God’s own happiness.”.  It is not transitory but everlasting, “like a day when the sun does not set.”  It comes from God and is God. 

Third, she describes attributes of a person who has this peace: a perfectly serene lake which reflects Jesus.  Jesus is peace and we achieve peace by becoming Him.  One needs humility, purity, conscience (which can be seen as righteousness), and love.  This comes right out of the Beatitudes (Mt 5:3-12).  To be blessed is to achieve the beatitudes and perhaps make them manifest in the world.  “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”  When I read that verse, I imagine “peacemakers” as those who resolve conflicts and wars.  But that might be too narrow a definition.  Peacemakers are those bring tranquility to a moment.  “Lord make me an instrument of your peace” St. Francis of Assisi is said to have prayed.  Bringing such peace is bringing Christ to the moment.

Fourth, to arrive at those attributes, we have to become Christ, especially through the willing acceptance of suffering.  Jesus gives this advice to Martha in Luke 10:41-42 when Jesus says to the hyperactive Martha in response to Martha’s sister Mary: “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.”  Mary has achieved peace in Christ.

I must say that arriving at such peace is very hard to do.  To willingly go through Christ’s passion and crucifixion is not easy in this temporal world.  After all, on this side of heaven, the sunset does give way to nightfall.

Conchita’s passage is so wonderful, I consider it Found Poetry.  Found poetry are passages that were not meant as a poem but a reader sees poetry in it.  With all due respect to Conchita, let me take the parts of her passage and arrange it as a poem.  Remember, this is Conchita’s work, not mine.

 

Peace

 

A sudden glimpse, a beam of tranquility,

The ray of God’s own blessedness from His eternal face,

We sit below a sunset that never ends,

Nightfall is extinguished, and with that

The anxiety that is not of the better part.

 

Peace came dropping slow.

The drops now pooled into a smooth lake.

What is that reflection staring back?  God’s face!

We see Jesus in the circles of a tarn.

We sit at His feet reflecting light.

 

The kingdom is for the meek and merciful,

The purity of one’s heart shows us God.

We remember the trials of persecution and of turmoil;

We now have comfort and are satisfied.

We are planted at our seats as the children of God.

 

Haha, that was fun composing it.  Let me know if my poem is any good.