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Contemplation and Peace
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2024
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Contemplation is the way to peace. But there are some who hold the contrary, not without good reason: for.
1. Those who are entrusted with the drawing up of peace- treaties are generally men of action. And if we find much to criticise in their achievements, we can rarely doubt their goodwill and we must admit their success in establishing what all men are agreed to call peace.
2. Contemplatives withdraw from the world to seek peace as the first condition for the fulfilment of their vocation.
Against this we have the testimony of the Church’s liturgy: Beata pads visio. That is to say, peace is achieved through a vision or contemplation.
Peace is something more than concord. There is concord when one party to an agreement accepts his obligations reluctantly, but there is no peace: one desire conflicts with another, there is no tranquillity or order in his soul. Yet desire is never completely at rest until the soul is in the presence of God. A relative tranquillity can, however, be attained in this world, more or less perfect according to the degree to which we perceive that only He who created our soul can maintain its harmony. When the perception of this truth contents us we are at peace. And this is attained through contemplation.
The order in the world and its tranquillity are fashioned according to a divine plan. Those who seek peace cannot therefore afford to neglect examination of the design which it is their task to realise: “They must be made to climb the ascent to the vision of Goodness, which we called the highest object of knowledge; and, allowed to remain on the heights, refusing to come down again to the prisoners.”
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- Copyright © 1945 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 II‐II q. 29 a. 1.
2 Cf. II‐II q. 29 a. 2 ad 4 um.
3 Plato, Republic vii, 520 (Cornford's translation).
4 “Nam secundum vaim inventionis, per res temporales in cognitionem devenimus aeternorum; in via vero judicii, per aeterna jam cognita dc temporalibus judicsmus, et secundum rationes aeternorum temporalia disponimus.” I q. 79 a. 9.
5 “Tota irrationalis natura comparatur ad Deum sicut instrumentum ad agens principale.” I‐II q. 1 a. 2.
6 “A gratia gratum faciente nullus deficit, nisi propter peccatum; …et sine gratia gratum faciente non potest esse vera pax, sed solum apparens.” II‐II q. 29 a. 3 ad 1 um.
7 “Quanto movens est altior, tanto necesse est quod mobile perfectiror dispositione ei proportionetur…Oportet igitur inesse homini altiores perfectiones, secundum quas dispositus sit ad hoc quod divinitus moveatur. Et istae perfectiones vocantur dons; non solum quia infunduntur a Deo; sed quia secundum ea homo disponitur ut efficiatur prompte mobilis ab inspiratione divina.” I‐II q. 68 a. 1.
8 “Perfectio gaudii est pax.” I‐II q. 70 a. 3.
9 Without their instrumentality He prepares for them a kingdom in heaven, but while in via they have closer knowledge of it than others and like wise arrhitects can direct the operations of the humbler builders whose vision is more limited.
10 Such s symposium as People Matter (S.C.M. Press, 6s.) suggests that outside the Catholic tradition there is a greater understanding of the fundamental conditions for peace than we sometimes realise. The general trend of these broadcasts is to suggest that people only matter because respect for their personalities means fulfilling divine justice; justice itself being understood as something far higher than any system of natural rights and duties.
11 “Opus vitae activae est duplex: unum quidem, qood ex plenitudine contemplationis derivatur, sicnt doctrina, et predicatio … et hoc praefcrtnr simp!ici contemplationi: sicut enim majus est illurninare, quani luccm solnm videre, ita majus est contcmplata aliiti tradere, qtiam solum contcmplari.” II‐II q. 188 a. 6.
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