Peace Has Its Crowns

Vices and the sins of the flesh must be trampled down, dear brothers, and the corrupting plague of the earthly body must be crushed underfoot by spiritual strength — or else we will turn back to the old self’s way of life and be caught in deadly traps. The apostle looked ahead and warned us of this very thing, for our health: “So then, brothers, let us not live according to the flesh. If you live according to the flesh, you will begin to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God.” [a]

If we are the sons of God, if we are already beginning to be his temples, if we have received the Holy Spirit and are living holy and spiritual lives, if we have raised our eyes from earth to heaven, if we have lifted hearts full of God and Christ to what is above and divine — then let us do nothing that is not worthy of God and of Christ. The apostle rouses us and urges us on: “If you have risen with Christ, look for the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Occupy your minds with what is above, not with what is on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.”

So then: in baptism we died and were buried, as far as the fleshly sins of the old self go, and we rose again with Christ in the new birth of heaven. Let us think and do what belongs to Christ. The same apostle teaches and advises us again: “The first man is of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven. As the man from the earth is, so also are those who are of the earth; and as the heavenly man is, so also are those who are heavenly. As we have borne the image of the man who is of the earth, let us bear also the image of the one who is from heaven.” But we cannot bear the heavenly image unless, in the condition we have already begun to be in, we show the likeness of Christ.

For this is what it is to change what you were and to begin to be what you were not: that the birth from God may shine out in you, that a godly discipline may answer to God the Father, that in the honor and the credit of the way you live God may be glorified in a man. He urges this himself, and warns of it, and promises those who glorify him a reward in return: “Those who glorify me I will glorify, and whoever despises me will be despised.” It is for that glorifying that the Lord shapes us and makes us ready; and the Son of God, pouring into us the likeness of God the Father, says in his Gospel: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the good and on the evil and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” [f]

If it is a joy and an honor to men to have children like themselves — and there is more satisfaction in having fathered a child when the offspring that follows answers to the parent feature for feature — how much greater is the gladness in God the Father when someone is born spiritually in such a way that the divine nobility of his line is announced by what he does and what he praises! What a palm of righteousness that is, what a crown: to be the kind of person the Lord will never say this of — “I have fathered children and brought them up, but they have despised me.” Let Christ applaud you instead, and call you to your reward: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, receive the kingdom that has been prepared for you from the beginning of the world.”

The mind must be made strong by thinking along these lines, dear brothers. Training of this kind is what steadies it against every dart the devil throws. Let the divine reading be in your hands and the Lord’s thoughts in your mind. Let steady prayer never stop at all; let the work that saves keep going. Let us always be busy with spiritual work, so that however often the enemy comes near, however many times he tries it, he finds the chest shut and armed against him. [j]

For a Christian’s crown is not only the one handed out in a time of persecution. Peace has its crowns too, and with them the winners are crowned after a varied fight on many fronts, once their opponent has been thrown down and beaten. To have overcome lust is the palm of self-control. To have held out against anger, against injury, is the crown of patience. It is a victory over greed to think nothing of money. It is the credit of faith to bear the world’s hard times by trusting what is coming. The man who is not arrogant when things go well earns glory for his humility. The man who leans toward the mercy of caring for the poor is paid back with a treasure in heaven. And the man who does not know how to be jealous, who loves his brothers with one heart and in gentleness, is honored with the reward of love and peace. This is the race of virtues we run every day. These are the palms and crowns of righteousness we reach, without a break in the running.

May you come to these rewards too — you who were once gripped by jealousy and bitterness. Throw off all the malice that used to hold you fast, and be remade for the way of eternal life, in the footsteps that lead to salvation. Tear the thorns and thistles out of your chest, so that the Lord’s seed may make you rich with a full yield and the divine and spiritual field may run over with a plentiful harvest. [m]

Throw out the poison of gall; throw out the venom of discord. Let the mind that the serpent’s envy had infected be cleaned out. Let all the bitterness that had settled inside be made sweet by the sweetness of Christ. If you take both food and drink from the sacred mystery of the cross, then let the wood that at Marah once served as a figure for sweetening the taste serve you in fact, to soothe a chest that has been softened; and you will not have to go hunting for a medicine to get your health back. Be cured by the very thing that wounded you.

Love the people you used to hate. Show favor to the people you envied and ran down unfairly. Copy good men, if you are able to follow them; and if you are not able to follow them, then at least be glad along with them and congratulate those who are better than you. Make yourself a partner with them in a shared love; make yourself their ally in the bond of love and the tie of brotherhood. Your own debts will be forgiven you when you have forgiven others. Your sacrifices will be accepted when you come to God at peace. Your thoughts and your deeds will be directed from above, when you turn your mind to what is divine and right, as it is written: “Let a man’s heart think over what is right, so that his steps may be directed by the Lord.”

And you have plenty to think about. Think of paradise, which Cain does not enter — the man who killed his brother out of jealousy. Think of the kingdom of heaven, into which the Lord lets no one but those who are of one heart and one mind. Consider that only those can be called sons of God who make peace, who are made one by a birth from heaven and by the divine law, and who answer to the likeness of God the Father and of Christ. [s]

Consider that we are standing under the eyes of God; that we are running the course of our way of life and our living with God himself watching and judging; and that we will be able to reach the sight of him at last only if we now please the one who is watching us by what we do — if we show ourselves worthy of his favor and his kindness, if we who are always to please him in his kingdom please him first here in the world.