In a Sentence
"Peace, peace, peace - and only peace!" (P4) is the Heavenly, mustard seed approach to peace being advocated by the Blessed Virgin Mary at Medjugorje.
Heavenly
"Peace, peace, peace - and only peace!" is a "Heavenly" approach to peace in that:
- It acknowledges, embraces and celebrates the fact that true and lasting peace can only be attained as a gift from God (RSV, Eph 2:14, Rom 15:33, Psalm 127:1) - it cannot be attained by human means alone.
- It reminds us that if we want to receive God's gift of peace - whether in our own lives, in our families, in our communities, in our countries or in our world at large - we must ask, prepare, care and give thanks for it through the spiritual works of faith, conversion, prayer and fasting.
- It encourages us in the truth that just as the depth, breadth and height of God's love surpasses knowledge (Eph 3:18-19), so too does His peace (Phil 4:7). There is no conflict - in our lives or in the world - which God cannot peacefully resolve (if we invite Him to through the spiritual works mentioned above).
Mustard Seed
"Peace, peace, peace - and only peace!" is a "mustard seed" approach to peace in that:
- Like the parable of the mustard seed, it teaches that peace must begin from the smallest of seeds - an individual heart - and then grow slowly and steadily into the greatest of shrubs - a more peaceful world.
- Like the parable of the growing seed (Mk 4:26-29), it acknowledges, embraces and celebrates the fact that the actual growth of peace - from seed, to blade, to ear and then to full grain - is the work of God.
- Like the parable of the sower (Mt 13: 1-9) it, at the same time as making us aware that the actual growth of peace is the work of God, charges us to do our part to foster that growth: we must make it a top priority to provide the rich environment needed for such growth to take place. We foster the growth of peace by the spiritual works of faith, conversion, prayer and fasting.
- Also like the parable of the sower, it promises that, to the degree that we foster the growth of peace, we will bear proportional fruit for ourselves, for others and for the world at large - some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
The P4 Process
So how does "Peace, peace, peace - and only peace!" actually work? How does it bring about peace in the world? Something like this:
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STEP 1: An individual comes to desire peace in their own life
True Desire
An individual has come to truly desire peace in their own life when they desire the benefits of resolving a conflict more than the benefits of not resolving it.
True desire manifests itself in a continual and permanent commitment to resolving conflict; in other words, when true desire is present, resolving the conflict becomes a top priority in the individual's life.
True desire comes from the heart.
In My Experience
With respect to a true desire for peace, I did not consciously realize it was "peace" I desired until I was years into the P4 Process - for a long time, I actually thought that what I desired was "happiness".
I mention this because I believe that many people who arrive at this first step also aren't conscious of their true desire for "peace". In other words, they know that they truly desire something - "joy," "truth," "purpose," "their real self" - but they may not name that something "peace".
Whether the individual names their desire "peace" or not doesn't really matter. What matters (as we are about to find out) is that their heart knows what they need... and it is peace.
In Scripture
"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called..." (RSV, Col 3:15).
In Medjugorje
"Peace, peace, peace - and only peace!" (Messages, June 26, 1981). |
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