Living the Beqtitudes 7: Blessed are the Peacemakers

Christ offers a profound blessing: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). This Beatitude calls us to a life that mirrors the divine peace of God, not just in our relationships with others but also in our internal spiritual life. Saint Gregory of Nyssa, a fourth-century Church Father, offers deep insights into what it means to be a peacemaker, both in the world and within oneself.

The Nature of Peace

For Saint Gregory, peace is not just an absence of conflict or a temporary cessation of strife. True peace is a deep, abiding love that flows from God and transforms the soul. He writes that peace is "a loving disposition to our neighbor"—a gentle and compassionate stance that seeks the good of others. This peace requires us to confront and eliminate the passions that disrupt our harmony with God and each other: hatred, wrath, envy, resentment, and hypocrisy.

Gregory emphasizes that peace cannot be given to others unless we first possess it ourselves. If we are to be peacemakers, we must first fill our own hearts with peace. This peace is not of our own making; it is a gift from God that must be received and nurtured. The Lord calls us to internal peace before we can bring that peace to others, to heal the wounds of a broken world.

The Peacemaker as a Reflector of Divine Love

A true peacemaker is one who imitates the divine love of God. Gregory teaches that the peacemaker reflects the characteristics of God's own energy. This means casting out hatred, abolishing war, and putting an end to strife. The peacemaker works to extinguish envy, resentment, and hypocrisy in their own life, becoming an agent of healing and reconciliation. Gregory compares the peacemaker to a fragrant spice, whose peace “fills the air around it” and heals the sickness in others. This is the work of divine love manifesting in the world.

Peace as the Harmony of Body and Soul

Saint Gregory takes this even further, explaining that the highest form of peace is when a person achieves harmony between the body and the soul. He writes, "That man is called a peacemaker par excellence who pacifies perfectly the discord between flesh and spirit in himself." Here, Gregory touches on a deep truth about the human condition: our body and soul are often in conflict. The body seeks comfort, pleasure, and worldly satisfaction, while the soul longs for holiness and union with God. A peacemaker is one who brings these two into alignment, where the law of the body is subjected to the higher law of the mind and spirit. This inner peace reflects the peace of God Himself.

Becoming Sons of God

To be a peacemaker is to become a true child of God. Gregory explains that as we cultivate peace, we are "crowned with the grace of adoption as sons." The peacemaker, through their efforts to bring peace to the world and to themselves, takes on the nature of God. In this sense, peacemaking is not just a moral duty but a path to divine sonship. The peacemaker reflects the image of God in their actions, and in doing so, they are called sons of God.

Living as Peacemakers Today

In the modern world, becoming a peacemaker often means standing in contrast to a culture of division, anger, and conflict. As followers of Christ, we are called to be agents of reconciliation in our families, communities, workplaces, and even on social media. But true peacemaking begins within. We must first address the conflicts within our own hearts—our resentments, our pride, and our anger—before we can offer peace to others.

This does not mean that peacemakers are passive or ignore injustice. Saint Gregory’s vision of peace is active; it is about bringing about reconciliation and healing. It is about working to restore harmony where there is division and showing love where there is hate.

The Beatitude of being a peacemaker reminds us that in order to become children of God, we must live in peace with others and with ourselves. This is a divine calling, one that transforms us into the image of Christ and leads us to the highest form of love: peace.

As we strive to live out this Beatitude, we remember that peace is not just a goal, but a gift—one that we receive from God and share with others, reflecting the divine harmony that is the very essence of God’s nature.

Reference: Commentary of Saint Gregory of Nyssa on the Lord's Prayer and The N+Beatitudes in Ancient Christian Writers, vol. 18