Saturday, June 13, 2020

Christ's Peace Comes Only from True Love

Saint Thomas Aquinas says that Christ's peace is threefold.

1. Peace with God.
2. Peace with oneself.
3. Peace with others.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux says that true love is its own reward. The love itself is perfect joy, it does not seek any compensation. There is no compensation because the love itself is supreme. That is perfect peace. There is no "ulterior motive." Non plus ultra!

"All true love is without calculation and nevertheless is instantly given its reward, in fact it can receive its reward only when it is without calculation.... Whoever seeks as the reward of his love only the joy of  love will receive the joy of love. But whoever seeks anything else in love except love will lose both love and the joy of love at the same time."

De diligendo Deo, ed. W.W. Williams (Cambridge, 1926), 32f. in Joseph Pieper, Faith, Hope, Love, San Francisco: Ignatius, 1997, 244.
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