Peaceful Battles?

“If we are peaceful, if we are happy, we can blossom like a flower, and everyone
in our family, in our entire society, will benefit from our peace.” Thich Nhat Hanh

“The soul is matured only in battles.” Abba John, The Wisdom of the Desert

Are these two maxims, one about peace and the other about battles, really opposed—or is the conflict more apparent than real? Well, certainly peace can beget more peace and kindness, more kindness, just as war begets war and violence, more violence. But the outcome in both cases, at least in the short-term, depends upon the reception the original conduct receives.

A peaceful person may spread peace in an otherwise violent situation, by causing aggressors to reconsider their own actions and motives—as with white Southerners during the civil rights movement or the British in India. Even in a simple family or work environment, daily acts of peace and kindness go a long way in fostering a pervasive climate of peacefulness, provided they find a favorable reception.

But peaceful overtures sometimes (too often) meet with rejection—a refusal of real engagement, refusal to acknowledge the genuine humanity of those offering peace. Worse yet, peace can meet with reactionary aggression—not a mere ignoring of peaceful overtures but an angry attack against them, with words or conduct of violence.

Perhaps this is where a peaceful heart is most powerful. For we have a choice in this—as in every—circumstance: Will we, in turn, react with violence, so that violence begets violence; or will we, with a strength of soul matured only in precisely such battles, resist the invitation and temptation to reactive violence, instead choosing conduct that reflects our own highest values and ideals?

Reactive violence is not inevitable—not if we are committed to growing into "the full stature of Christ" (Eph 4.13). There are many kinds of battles, and not all of them involve bodies, blood, and killing. The fiercest battles occur within our own souls. Think of the temptations Jesus faced at the outset of his ministry from Satan and, again, in the garden at Gethsemane, the night before facing the cross.

These battles of the soul are the fire in which our fundamental inner character is forged. There is plenty of evil, hatred, fear, threat, and ugliness in the world. If we want excuses to react with violence, there are more than enough ready to hand.

But if we want to beget peace, we must first be peaceful; we must show people what peace looks like, how it acts: what it does and does not do, what it says and does not say, what it thinks and does not think—what room it leaves for misunderstanding, miscommunication, and forgiveness. Peaceful lives are imaginative, creative lives; they envision “a way out of no way” that God will make for us, if we ask for and trust in God’s guidance and care.

The way of violence is the easy way—it is the way of weakness, of worldly 'wisdom' that leads to the injustice of the cross. The way of peace, the way of the power and wisdom of God, is, paradoxically, a way of battle—a battle, however, that takes place inside one’s own soul. "For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength" (1 Cor 1.25). The “foolishness of the cross” about which St Paul speaks as a “stumbling block” is just this (1 Cor 1.18-25): Following the way of the cross of Christ calls us to both the way of peace and the way of interior battles. May the God who calls us to peace also strengthen us to be peaceable, to beget peace by fighting, with integrity, our inner spiritual battles.