Vigils Reading – 6th Sunday ORD

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS

From a commentary by St John Chrysostom

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Christ gave his life for you, and do you hold a grudge against your fellow

servant? How then can you approach the table of peace? Your master did not

refuse to undergo every kind of suffering for you, and will you not even forgo

your anger? Why is this, when love is the root, the wellspring and the mother of

every blessing?

He has offered me an outrageous insult, you say. He has wronged me

times without number, he has endangered my life. Well, what is that? He has

not yet crucified you as the Jewish elders crucified the Lord. If you refuse to

forgive your neighbor’s offense your heavenly Father will not forgive your sins

either.

What does your conscience say when you repeat the words: Our Father

who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, and the rest? Christ went so far as to

offer his blood for the salvation of those who shed it. What could you do that

would equal that? If you refuse to forgive your enemy you harm not him but

yourself. You have indeed harmed him frequently in this present life, but you

have earned for yourself eternal punishment on the day of judgment. There is no

one God detests and repudiates more than the person who bears a grudge,

whose heart is filled with anger, whose soul is seething with rage.

Listen to the Lord’s words: If you are bringing your gift to the altar, and

there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave

your gift there before the altar and first go and be reconciled. Then come and

offer your gift.

What do you mean? Am I really to leave my gift, my offering there? Yes, he

says, because this sacrifice is offered in order that you may live in peace with

your neighbor. If then the attainment of peace is the object of the sacrifice and

you fail to make peace, even if you share in the sacrifice your lack of peace will

make this sharing fruitless. Before all else, therefore make peace, for the sake of

which the sacrifice is offered. Then you will really benefit from it.

The reason the Son of God came into the world was to reconcile the

human race with the Father. As Paul says: Now he has reconciled all things to

himself, destroying enmity in himself by the cross. Consequently, as well as

coming himself to make peace he also calls us blessed if we do the same, and

shares his title with us. Blessed are the peacemakers, he says, for they shall be

called the children of God.

So as far as a human being can, you must do what Christ the Son of God

did, and become a promoter of peace both for yourself and for your neighbor.

Christ calls the peacemakers a child of God. The only good deed he mentions as

essential at the time of sacrifice is reconciliation with one’s brother or sister.

This shows that of all the virtues the most important is love.