Weekend Thought by John Milbank
Standing still for a moment in Colchester High Street, I tuned out the babble in my head and tuned in the noise around me. Ah peace … No way! Peace is a relatively intangible concept; does it refer to the lack of distractive activity or a state of mind?
There is rarely an absence of noise, but peace in terms of getting away from the racket of urban life is not easy, it's hard to escape noise in say London City centre, whereas in soggy Suffolk one is never too far away from a cowpat.
The other concept of peace refers to the often-misused notion of "peace of mind". Who can honestly boast of total peace of mind? Anyway, what is it? The absence of any mental, or emotional disturbance, perhaps?
Come on, countless individuals, organisations and religious persuasions globally have been trying to advocate that ambition for millennia, and if it were attainable, would have the universal prescription available for instant download now, and thousands would be strolling through Sudbury with a look of absolute calm and serenity on their face and in their eyes without a hint of chemical contribution.
Well, to cut a long discussion short, I am going to offer a solution to this peace thing ... a different kind of peace to what is considered above, yet one that is everlasting and can only be understood by those who are privileged to have obtained it through absolutely no effort of their own.
Impossible and implausible, you might say. Irrelevant to today's difficult and dangerous, demoralised and depressed human condition, you might also say. But no, on the contrary, absolutely critical to the entire human race and becoming more and more relevant.
This feature in this excellent newspaper makes it possible to bring this kind of information beyond the pulpit into the public domain, so here goes:
All the other descriptions of "peace" above are defined by Jesus as available from"'the world" and therefore, by inference, as unreliable and limited.
Jesus said the following words, and it is essential now more than ever before to pay heed to His message and to believe in Him: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives, do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid ... trust in God, trust also in me."
Do this and you will know the Peace I am talking about.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Sudbury
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: South east
