MAKE
ME A CHANNEL OF YOUR PEACE
The
famous prayer of St. Francis of Assisi begins as, “Make me a channel of your
peace….” As a Franciscan, singing this hymn daily as our evening prayer, never
gave me the realization about the richness of this prayer. Today, instead I see
it as the most vital aspect of our Christian spirituality. ‘Being a channel of peace’ manifests, the
new commandment of Christ we are called to live in. We commit ourselves to it
during the Eucharist, at each time when we declare, “peace be with you” to our
neighbor. The question we can ask ourselves is “are we in peace?”, “am I in peace
with my neighbor?” This cannot be answered from the view of momentary
peacefulness which we all experience at some occasion but as a state of
peacefulness which is consistent in every aspect of our life.
To
have peace within ourselves requires primarily healing our hearts. Hurts come
through our experiences. No one is escaped from it except the one who gradually
learns the art of forgiveness. True forgiveness gives peace that allows the love
to flow from your heart directing to the other. True forgiveness liberates us
from hurtful persons. Only when one heals himself from one’s hurt, he can heal
others from their hurts. This is our participation in the mission of Christ,
“love one another, as you love yourself”. In other words, to care, to nurture,
to enhance, to develop and moreover to serve others is our mission. Christ our redeemer
came to serve and not to be served. He could give the true peace to his betrayer
inspite of betraying him because He was filled with peace. The world of today
needs these channels of peace to make it a better place. Let us therefore,
actively pray that the lord may make us his true channels of peace.
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