The Spiritual Conditions of Peace #
For several months now, the war has dragged on, claiming thousands of victims—our sons, brothers, and fathers. By God’s mercy, victory follows our warriors. Submissive to the will of God, we bear the sorrow and hardships of war with faith and hope. Yet, of course, all of us thirst for peace, longing for the end of the slaughter and rest in a quiet and serene realm.
In the Epistle reading for November 9, the conditions for true peace and the paths to attaining it are laid out. Christ is our peace:
“For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” (Ephesians 2:14–22).
Christ destroyed the enmity between the two worlds, pagan and Jewish, through His love and the sacrifice of His Cross. In love, He showed the path to peace and the union of all. According to the Apostle, this end of worldly strife was the consequence of the reconciliation of heaven and earth. What a covenant for our times is contained in these words: what comfort for the “people of peace” amid the flames of war.
Peace is the essential possession of those who live by Christ and His love. Peace is granted to the people who have embraced Christ’s law of love toward both neighbor and stranger, realizing that in Christ “there is neither Greek nor Jew,” no enemies, but only brothers. We are the people of peace. We Russians are not enemies even to those against whom we take up arms for the sake of truth. Particularly, the thunder of war has drowned out the small traces of internal discord, the inner enmity among various ethnic groups and classes. In this spirit of peacemaking, the foundation for a happy peace has already been laid: a peaceful and united people is invincible.
But we must yet more fully embrace this covenant of peace within our hearts; we must strengthen even further the internal unity of the people; we must blend even more completely into one national soul.
Most of all, unity is needed—“the merging of all”—in common labor for the homeland during these days of sorrow. The homeland is our mother. I vividly imagine the picture drawn by one patriot:
“The mother gathered her children around her, stretched her hands over them, and blessed them. ‘Children, I give you clothing and food; a cradle to the little one, a house to the grown, and a grave to the one who leaves this world. I have long sat by your cradle, singing you lullabies. I watched over your first steps and taught you. At times, it may have seemed to you that I was a strict mother; yes, I lived with you not in luxury and abundance—but taught you to work and to endure hardships, so that you might become strong. And now I demand that you love me, as I have loved you. Work for your mother and pray for her. When your mother is poor, you must make her rich. When she is sorrowful, you must gladden her… She is cold, and you must warm her… She lives in darkness, and you must kindle a bright light in her windows. And then I, your mother, will pray to Almighty God—to make you happy and to grant you peace…’” (parable).
This mother is our homeland… And who, upon hearing her speech, would dare say: “We do not wish to serve you”?
Now she speaks more clearly: “Children… I am in great sorrow… A foreign hand has struck me… And behold, many of you are giving your lives to defend me, seeking peace and rest for me. And you, the rest of you, hold tighter to unity and to common labor. Give me your time, give me your savings—a portion of your hard-earned coin—to strengthen the hand and spirit of the fighters; strengthen peace among yourselves, and unite the strength of all into one strength for struggle and resistance. And you shall win a blessed peace.”
This speech of the motherland resounds now like a Paschal bell. Let us answer it as obedient children. Let us offer all that we can, so that the country may be saved from the hands of brigands. Let us be warmth, light, and encouragement for those who stand in arms for our mother, and let us strengthen them. And we shall receive peace—swift and joyful.
But are there not other conditions for hastening the arrival of peace? There are—and they have been pointed out more than once in the sacred readings of our Church, precisely during these days.
Here is a tale of a great calamity in Novgorod. A terrible plague struck the city. Death mowed down thousands. How could death be stopped? The answer was given by Jonah, Archbishop of Novgorod:
“In the days of sorrow, change your very way of life,” he said to the people. “Christians, I see something dreadful. Death is all around—but in the face of death, I see the old sin. Is not this multitude of deaths enough for you, that you are also surrendering your souls to death? According to the preaching of the Prophet Jonah, my namesake, the people of Nineveh in the face of calamity fasted from man to beast, from king to servant… And death was overcome through repentance. To stop death, we too must go to the Source of life…”
The people’s response to Jonah’s words was a change in the entire way of life in the city. And what did Nineveh, which the Gospel of the previous Sunday pointed to as an example, do? Indeed, how did that pagan city live in the face of catastrophe? It completely renounced its former manner of life. The face of the great city was transformed. The markets fell silent. Singing and music ceased. And “they turned from their evil way and from the violence that was in their hands” (Jonah 3:8).
Should not the calamity of war bring us the same—not only unity in mutual aid, but also an inner change of life—a great repentance? In days of fasting, a life of fasting is proper. Whoever desires peace must pray for it to the Most High, as did the people of Nineveh, having cleansed their hands and their souls. And peace shall come.
Bishop Mikhail (Semenov) Old Believer journal “The Word of the Church,” 1914