Peace is there. If you want it.

So there I was... at a local buffet restaurant with my family. While we were eating, a middle-aged couple came in and set down in the booth next to us. While the gentleman was sitting down, I noticed that he had a big "peace sign" printed on the back of his t-shirt. Also printed on the shirt was "Peace is there. If you want it."

My initial reaction to the declarations of his garment could be described as negative. This reaction was exasperated by the fact that the front of his t-shirt had a close up image of the face of some hippie (probably some famous musician that I am blissfully unaware of) with "peace signs" in the place of the eyes.

I felt an instinctual dislike for the man, his shirt, his companion and the car he drove in on. I didn't even really care for his buffet selection... Who eats cherry jello with a green salad?! Freakin hippie...

Anyway, all of these things, I initially thought, were an unwelcome harshing of my dinnertime mellow. As time progressed, I had the opportunity to get over this initial reaction and contemplate the situation a bit deeper. Not much deeper, as I was also preventing my two-year-old from spreading his mashed potatoes all over the nearby window. But a bit deeper anyway...

My first realization was that I was, myself, wearing a Jesus t-shirt with the Apostles Creed printed on the back. So I couldn't credibly justify my negative reaction on the sole basis of garment-based-advertising.

Next, I recognized that the text of his message was not something that I disagreed with. In fact, that simple message is one that I enthusiastically endorse and regularly disseminate myself. Peace is, in fact, there if you want it.

I determined that the source of my reaction was the "peace sign." In my mind, this symbol is associated with immoral drug use and sexual behavior, discredited economic and political systems, obnoxious music and a vicious attack on God, human dignity and truth.

However the text, in-and-of itself, I very much agree with. Peace is there. If you want it. If the "peace sign" on the shirt were replaced with a cross or crucifix, I would buy such a shirt and wear it proudly. Well... we'd have to do something about the hippie on the front. Perhaps replace it with a nice, elegant monstrance or something...

So both I and the ex-hippie want peace. Great. We're finding some common ground here... That's me, a uniter, not a divider...

The open questions then remaining are the definition of peace and the source of that peace. Is peace defined in the negative? Does "peace" simply mean the absence of political and economic strife? Or is peace defined in the positive? Does peace exist and is it something that can be obtained? And if it can be obtained, how do we go about obtaining it?

The answer to the first part of these questions can be found in CCC #2304:

Respect for and development of human life require peace. Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity. Peace is "the tranquility of order." Peace is the work of justice and the effect of charity.

So we see that peace is not merely the absence of strife. The catechism describes peace as something positive, namely "the tranquility of order."

We also see, in the footnote, that this definition is sourced from St. Augustine in City of God, Book 19, Chapter 13. It is always beneficial to look up these sources when you are trying to understand something. The catechism is designed to be a beginning, not an end. We affirm everything that is in the catechism as true, and then use the tools it provides to go even deeper:

Peace between man and God is the well-ordered obedience of faith to eternal law. Peace between man and man is well-ordered concord. Domestic peace is the well-ordered concord between those of the family who rule and those who obey. Civil peace is a similar concord among the citizens. The peace of the celestial city is the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God, and of one another in God. The peace of all things is the tranquility of order.

So we see here that peace is not merely the tranquility of order, but a well-ordered tranquility of order (concord). Therefore we cannot say that the murder of Jews in the holocaust was "peaceful" just because it was orderly and they went tranquilly. Nor can we say that the murder of millions of babies in the abortion holocaust is peaceful for the same reasons.

St. Thomas provides us with confirmation of this understanding in Summa Theologiae II q.29

There can be concord in evil between wicked men. But "there is no peace to the wicked" (Isaiah 48:22). Therefore peace is not the same as concord.
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Peace includes concord and adds something thereto. Hence wherever peace is, there is concord, but there is not peace, wherever there is concord, if we give peace its proper meaning.
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Augustine is speaking there of that peace which is between one man and another, and he says that this peace is concord, not indeed any kind of concord, but that which is well ordered, through one man agreeing with another in respect of something befitting to both of them.

I believe that my hippie dining companion and I will be parting company at this point. So much for my career as a uniter.

Since peace requires that the tranquility be well ordered, peace necessitates an acknowledgment of God. Without a creator there is no such thing as "well ordered." To be well ordered requires an objective "order" to which an action or situation can be compared. When driving a car, one knows if he is going the right way by measuring his distance from a known (objective) destination. If his destination does not exist, there is no way of telling whether he is getting closer. All directions would be equally valid, as there is no goal to be getting closer to. Without God, there is no objective difference between feeding a million hungry people or killing them. Only God has the competence to define such a moral compass.

With that background, the next paragraph of the catechism comes into context:

Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ, the messianic "Prince of Peace." By the blood of his Cross, "in his own person he killed the hostility," he reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God. "He is our peace." He has declared: "Blessed are the peacemakers."

Given the context that we examined from St. Augustine and St. Thomas, we can see why the catechism makes this apparently sudden turn to discuss Christ. In Christ we see the perfect self revelation of God (even if we understand it imperfectly). To study the actions of Christ is to study the reality of the moral order which mirrors God's own nature. And we learn that our own efforts at peace must mirror the peace of Christ. This is the way that we go about discovering what is well ordered and what is not.

Now I'm certain that my hippie friend, upon reading the Creed on my own t-shirt, spent his dinner time ruminating on all of this. Hopefully he figured it all out and is currently enrolled in RCIA. But on the off chance that he's not...

I would like to conclude with the observation that the Christian understanding of peace is the only one that has ever worked. Notions of humanistic "peace" apart from God and based solely on politics and economics are an intellectual fantasy. There has never been a single example of prolonged social peace in the world. No matter how mankind has tinkered with political, economic and justice systems, we have had war, poverty and crime. Secondly, even small scale experiments of utopia creation have been short lived failures. Even with the protections of the United States Constitution, justice system, economy and military; communes such as those of the 1960s quickly die out. Imagine if they had been forced to go it completely on their own...

But there has been peace in the heart of man. People such as Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul the Great, St. Francis and the Little Flower show us that a deeply profound peace may be obtained, even in the midst of suffering and deprivation.

It is not the "order of tranquility" of society that is necessary to obtain peace. We've never had that, and never will this side of heaven. It is the well-ordered tranquility of a life of prayer and obedience that allows us to experience peace. That peace is not only possible, but guaranteed and eternal.

Peace is there. If you want it.