Day 23, Thursday, 11 March ‘In his will is our peace’ (Dante)

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 23, Thursday, 11 March 

‘In his will is our peace’ (Dante)

Dante Alighieri, born 1265 in Florence, Italy, is to Italian what Shakespeare is to English. His Divine Comedy, an imagined purifying journey of the dead to Paradise, is considered one of the greatest pieces of world literature. This saying of his, ‘in his will is our peace’, sums up his whole outlook as it does the whole of Christian theology. Its origins are, of course, in scripture and today’s readings are a good example of the source.

‘Follow right to the end the way that I mark out for you, and you will prosper’, says Jeremiah (7:23-28). ‘But they did not listen and followed the dictates of their own hearts’.  In the gospel, (Luke 11:14-23), there is a blank refusal to accept Jesus and they prefer to say he is possessed by a devil. Jesus warns them strongly: ‘the kingdom of God has overtaken you’ whether you like it or not. You can fight against it, try to ignore it, brush it off as the devil’s work.  But it is there, immovable, solid as a rock.

If we do not accept this gift and follow the way Jesus reveals to us, we will have no peace. Our joy, our peace, is in surrendering to love, the love of God for each one of us. Human love is a taste of divine love and leads on, if we follow the path, to divine love. In human love we give ourselves to one another. If we hold back, and try to control love to our own liking, we know we will have no peace. We have to lose ourselves so as to find ourselves. This is written on every page of the gospel. And of every page of world literature.

It is the wisdom of the ages which each generation has to learn and re-learn repeatedly until we truly find his will – ‘thy will be done’ – and our peace.