“I leave you Peace, My Peace I give you”

by: Art Javier

      Christmas is just around the corner. To those who have international cable or satellite subscription, the Filipino Channel specifically the TV Patrol segment has a day-to-day countdown of how many more days before we hit Christmas. When you get to read this article when first published it should be 22 days before Christmas.

     What seems to be lamentable is that year in and year out, we celebrate Christmas but many of us seem to have a different perception of what Christmas is all about. When I was little, I usually hear from the old folks that “Christmas is just for the kids.” (Para sa mga bata lang ang Pasko). At that time, I accepted this perception. Why? Because our  young minds were conditioned to see Santa Claus as the symbol or the central character of Christmas. There is no problem telling our children about Santa Claus and his role in the Christmas spirit and what he stands for. The problem lies in too much hype of Santa and the children misses the fact that it is Jesus Christ who is the central character of Christmas. 

     First and foremost we should tell ourselves and our children that we are celebrating the birthday of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ, the Messiah, was born of the Virgin Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, preceded by the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel. “For God so love the world that He gave us His only Son to save us from sin.”

     Jesus Christ stands for love. As He has taught us, we must love God, with our whole heart, mind and soul, as manifested in the first three commandments and we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves- all restated and reinforced from the fourth to the tenth commandment.  But even as many of us who are the obedient children of God try our best to follow these commandments and manifest our love for God and our neighbors, we are saddled by a great stumbling block, that is, the lack of peace. For how can one love if one has a troubled mind and a troubled spirit?

     Jesus equally stands for Peace as much as He stands for Love. How do we attain the peace that Jesus wants us to have in this life?

     Let me summarize the many teachings I learned from various preachers, priests and spiritual leaders on how each one of us can attain peace. There are three tiers or levels in our pursuit of peace in our lives.

     The first level is: Be at Peace with Yourself.  How can one be at peace with oneself? The greatest way to be at peace with yourself is through prayer. Sincere and deep meditation puts us in direct contact with our Maker. Prayer strengthens our faith and gives tranquility to the spirit. It clears our mind and creates the positive thoughts that will inspire us to do good in our lives. As our spirits enter into deep meditation, we must ask God to forgive us and more importantly that He helps us forgive ourselves. We must forgive ourselves for the shortcomings, mistakes and sins that we have committed in the past and in our present lives. We should learn not be hard on ourselves and not to take life seriously. Put a smile in your face and everything else changes and magnetizes that positive energy around us.

     For those who seek a deeper spirituality and long lasting peace, a regular Bible study can be pursued. Reading and studying the Bible shoud be preceded by our sincerest intention to know and understand what God wants us to do in our temporal lives here on Earth.

     Before I leave this first level, I would like to share with you a quote from the Awesome Moments on how we can enhance the peace within ourselves. Let us always remember this, “There is a God..You’re not Him.” If we encounter a problem which we think is beyond our means, give it to the Lord. We should stop playing God and stop controlling the lives of other people. We should also stop rewinding old faults and sins of the past. By the same token, we should not forward events that we would like to impose and compel others to follow, against their own free will. Let us not forget that there is a Supreme Being, and definitely you’re not Him. This thought alone will bring us peace with our own selves.  

     The second level is: Be at Peace with your fellow men. Allow me to borrow some ideas from Fr. Jerry Orbos so that I can explain this thesis.  Fr. Orbos says that to be at peace with our fellowmen, we have to get rid of the sins of the H-E-A-R-T.

     The first sin is the letter H, which stands for Hatred. We shoud remove hatred in our lives and learn to forgive our fellow men.  Forgive your parents, your brothers and sisters, your friends, relatives and even your enemies. Forgive your ex-spouses, your ex-boyfriend and girlfriend and forgive all the people who have done you wrong. Truly, it so difficult to forgive. But the first step we should do to be able to forgive is to pray for that person or persons whom we want to forgive. That gesture alone will open our hearts and our minds to enable us to forgive other people. Soon the hatred that is likened to a poison and an acid will be eliminated from our heart.

     The second letter E, stands for Envy. This is really one bad trait of the Filipino people. Ever since I entered my adult life, I have noticed that the Filipinos are generally envious people. I have been and have lived all around the world and this is a common denominator for many Filipinos whether they are in Africa, Middle East, Asia or America. Many Filipino writers and sociologists refer to this as the “Crab Mentality.” When a Filipino neighbor, friend, relative or acquaintance progresses in life we become troubled, confused and disappointed and we would like to pull that person down where we think he or she belongs. Sounds familiar?

     But the fact is, we can really dispel envy if we can convince ourselves that we already have all that we need. Most of us compare ourselves to others, as in Keeping up with the Joneses, and the ultimate result is that we either become vain or bitter. For as the Desiderata says, “there will always be better and lesser persons than us.” Conclusion: To be at peace with your fellow men, dispel envy and do not compare yourselves to others.    

     The closest relative of envy is jealousy. A jealous person is an unsecured person. The best way to remove jealousy in ourselves is to develop our self-esteem and just let other people be. Live and let live. Or as Paul McCartney says. “Let it Be.”

     A little jealousy is probably healthy in a romantic relationship. But if it gets out of control, it will be enough to destroy a marriage and ruin a family and a home. Get rid of jealousy by giving your partner the space and the time he or she needs for himself or herself. Give yourself also the time and space you need for yourself and soon jealousy will be a thing of the past in your relationship.

     The third letter A, stands for Anger. You can never be at peace with your fellow men if you constantly indulge in anger. Learn to manage you anger. As Fr. Orbos says, “Talk to people, shout at animals.” A lot of us shout at people and baby our animals (pets).

     The next letter R, stands for Resentment. A person who always resents (matampuhin) will never have peace with his fellow men. Anything and everything that one does, even with the best intentions, will never be appreciated by one who has resentment in him. So get rid of resentment. Replace this by being joyful and appreciative and you will be at peace with your fellow men.

      And the last T stands for Timidity. Timidity is not doing what we believe we can do to better the situation. This will always haunt that person because he will always feel guilty if evil comes to someone or a group of people whom he could have saved from these unfortunate consequences because he did not do what he could have done. This person will never be at peace with his fellow men.  

    The third level to attain peace is to be at Peace with your God, whatever you conceive Him to be. It doesn’t matter what religion or denomination you practice or whatever name you call God, whether it’s Yahweh, Allah, El Shaddai, etc. It doesn’t matter too whether you are a Catholic or a born again Christian. Stop wasting your time criticizing the Catholics who give respect to the statues and images of the Lord and the Blessed Mother. Because in the end you will know that religion will not save you.” For only the grace of God will save you.” Any man of any faith, should give more importance to accepting the Lord Jesus Christ, the one and the only central character of Christmas, as his Savior and develop, sustain and keep strong that personal relationship with Him. By doing this, you will always be at peace with your God.

“Peace be with you.”