Peace

Peace is not merely quiet agreement among men. Peace means harmony and satisfaction in all the tendencies and desires ofa man’s heart. Peace, therefore, is more than outer concord; itis inner repose in the attainment of all that can be desired.

Peace is the end of all desiring. Wherever there is tendency, there is the drive for repose in the attaining of the object of tendency. Peace is fulfillment, with tendency at rest. All things, inasmuch as they tend to their connatural or supernatural end, tend to peace; we may even say that everything desires peace.

Peace in a man’s soul, spiritual peace, results from charity. When a person focuses his harmonious inner tendencies on God, he exercises charity, and he has peace. When men exercise charity one towards another as true neighbors, they tend together unto God, and they have peace.

Peace, like joy, is not a virtue on its own account orin itself; it is the exercise of a virtue; it is an act and an effect of the virtue of charity. Like joy, it is one of the twelve fruits of the Holy Ghost.