Recreation of the Roman Forum, print by Theodor Joseph Hubert Hoffbauer (c. 1911)

At the time of Jesus, the Roman state was known as the Roman Empire. It had not always been this way. For centuries, the Roman state had been a democracy and was known as the Roman Republic. Democracy served Rome well for a time, but as the republic expanded and became wealthier, it became crippled by a bloody civil war. Throughout the first century before Christ, families and generals wrestled for control of the Roman government. The civil conflict only began to abate in 27BC when the Roman Senate granted Octavian, the nephew of Julius Caesar, a mixture of plenary military, legislative and judicial power. At this point, the Roman Republic ended, giving way to the Roman Empire.

These events inspired the imagination of George Lucas and are replicated in the first three Star Wars movies. There we see the Galactic Republic convulsed by a series of civil wars called the Clone Wars. By the third movie, it becomes clear that these civil wars have been engineered by Senator Palpatine. Palpatine then induces the Senate to grant him plenary military, legislative and judicial power. At which point Palpatine promptly announces the reorganisation of the Republic into the first Galactic Empire, “for a safe and secure society.”

The transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire brought an end to the years of civil war that had plagued Roman society. So grateful were the Romans for the restoration of political stability, that Seneca the Younger, a philosopher and tutor of the Emperor Nero, coined the term pax romana, the Peace of Rome. Historians generally agree that the Peace of Rome lasted over two hundred years, from 27BC until 180AD.

As grateful as the Romans may have been for the absence of civil war, the Peace of Rome was made possible only by dictatorial power and fear. Indeed, the Peace of Rome was more akin to slavery than peace. Ordinary Romans coped with this new reality by resorting to what George Orwell called “doublethink”. Despite the fact that they lived in a military dictatorship, they continued to call themselves free citizens.

This is the world into which our Redeemer was born, and the Peace of Rome is the peace he refers to as “the peace the world gives”. Jesus offers us a peace entirely different: “Peace I bequeath to you, my own peace I give you, a peace the world cannot give, this is my gift to you.”

There are two types of peace in this world. False peace is the gift of Caesar Augustus and his modern-day equivalents. True peace is the gift of Jesus alone. False peace is maintained by power and fear. True peace is maintained by love and trust.

True peace cannot be achieved by human effort alone. It is only possible for those individuals and communities who open themselves to Jesus. Peace is so elusive between nations and within communities precisely because we seek peace without reference to God.

Saint Augustine was a proud citizen of the Roman Empire. Many years after the Peace of Rome had collapsed, Augustine contemplated the peace that Jesus gives. Augustine defined peace not merely as the absence of conflict, but as tranquility of order. This order is primarily interior. It is a matter of each human heart. According to Augustine, true peace is tranquillty of order within the human heart.

This is the peace that Jesus describes as “my own peace”. Jesus possesses peace because his heart is rightly ordered. Jesus loves the Father first. Jesus also loves other things, such as us, but these other loves are subordinated to His love for His Father. Thus, Jesus has only one overarching desire: to do the will of His Father. Since Jesus’ heart is rightly ordered to the Father, it is also unified and simple. Thus, it is tranquil, peaceful.

This peace that comes from a rightly ordered heart was also experienced by Adam and Eve in the beginning. Through Original Sin, however, Adam and Eve introduced disorder into the human heart. They withheld love from God whom they were made to love.

Every human person is born with a disordered heart. Our hearts are filled with competing desires and loves. We desire things that are evil, and we struggle to subordinate our loves to one overarching love, especially the love of God. These competing desires and loves cause interior restlessness. This interior restlessness is the source of every human conflict, from the domestic disputes between husband and wife, to the political disputes between nations.

True peace begins with receiving the love of Jesus. Many people receive Jesus by grace in the Sacrament of Baptism and still do not experience his peace because they do note encounter his love. True peace begins with experiencing the rightly ordered love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Receiving the love of Jesus soothes and heals our hearts like medicine heals an open wound. The love of Jesus literally tranquilises our hearts, in the sense that it brings tranquillity to our hearts. When we encounter the love of Jesus, our hearts begin to be unified and simplified. We learn to love rightly by being loved rightly.

We encounter the healing love of Jesus in many ways. I will mention only two: prayer and mortification.

Personal prayer, whether in the solitude of our room or in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament at the church, is the primary way we encounter the open Heart of Jesus on a daily basis. Through prayer, we give our attention to Jesus, who loves us. We turn our hearts from so many other things and direct them to Jesus alone. In this way, we are able to receive the love that Jesus always offers us. Receiving the love of Jesus in prayer then exercises our loving desire for God, allowing that love to grow stronger in our hearts. In other words, prayer reorders our hearts, bringing true peace.

Mortification corrects our disordered unruly desires and loves so that the love of God can dominate our hearts more easily. Mortification involves denying ourselves some good thing that we tend to love in a disordered way. Mortification can be self-imposed, like in Lent. Mortification can also come through circumstances that happen to us, such as when someone cuts us off in traffic or when we suffer an injury, if we freely consent to denying ourselves the good thing taken by the circumstances. By denying ourselves good things through mortification, our hearts are liberated from their disordered desires and disposed to receive the peace that comes from loving God.

A rightly ordered heart remains peaceful in good times and in bad. It trusts the goodness of God, even when that goodness is hard to see. The presence or absence of goods, even necessary goods, does not disquiet a rightly ordered heart. The rightly ordered heart evaluates all things only in reference to loving God. It is simple and unified. Therefore, it is at peace.

Following World War II, the Western hemisphere entered a phase of relative order, sometimes called the pax americana, the Peace of America. Over the last two decades, however, we have seen this global order begin to break down. The breakdown of the pax americana is as inevitable as the breakdown of the pax romana, since it was founded not on love of God but on military and economic power. This breakdown leaves people tired of conflict and hungry for peace. The temptation will be to seek false peace in a new manifestation of power. In these uncertain days, Catholics, together with Christians everywhere, witness to the source of true peace. We know where peace is found. The peace for which so many long comes not from power but from love, not from Caesar but from Jesus.