De bono pacifico homine.

The Fruit of Inner Peace

True peace begins within and flows outward, transforming how we see and serve others.

Put yourself first in peace, and then you'll be able to bring peace to others. A peaceful person does more good than a well-learned one. A person ruled by passion draws even what is good toward evil, and easily believes the worst.¹ A good and peaceful person turns all things toward good. Whoever rests well in peace suspects no one. But whoever is discontented and agitated is driven by various suspicions, and neither finds rest himself nor allows others to rest. Such a person often says it would be better for him to do something else, and neglects what he himself is bound to do. So hold zeal for yourself first; then you'll be able to rightly show zeal for your neighbor as well.

The Test of True Humility

Genuine humility is proven not in ease but in patient endurance of difficult people.

You know well how to excuse your own actions and put up with them, but you won't accept excuses from others. You would be just if you accused yourself and excused your brother. If you want to be carried, carry another. See how far you still are from true love and humility, which knows how to be angry or indignant with no one except itself alone.² It's nothing great to live among good and gentle people.³ For this pleases everyone by nature, and each person gladly keeps the peace and loves more those who think as they do. But to be able to live peacefully with the harsh and the perverse, the undisciplined, or those who oppose us — that is great grace, and an exceedingly praiseworthy and courageous thing to do.⁴⁵

Three Kinds of Peace

Peace is not the absence of suffering but humble endurance, leading to union with Christ.

But there are those who keep themselves at peace and are also at peace with others. And there are those who neither have peace themselves nor leave others in peace. They are a burden to others, but to themselves they are always more of a burden still. And there are those who keep themselves at peace and strive to lead others back to peace. And yet all our peace in this wretched life is to be placed in humble endurance rather than in not feeling adversity.⁶ The one who knows best how to suffer will hold the greater peace. That one is conqueror of self, master of the world, friend of Christ, and heir of heaven.

Read the original Latin

Pone te primus in pace, et tunc alios poteris pacificare. Homo pacificus plus prodest, quam bene doctus. Homo passionatus etiam bonus in malum trahit, et faciliter malum credit. Bonus homo pacificus omnia ad bonum convertit. Qui bene in pace est, de nullo suspicatur. Qui autem male contentus est, et commotus, variis suspicionibus agitatur, nec ipse quiescit, nec alios quiescere permittit. Dicit sæpe quod sibi magis facere expediret, et negligit, quod ipse facere tenetur. Habe ergo primum zelum super te ipsum, tunc zelare poteris etiam juste proximum tuum.

Tu bene facta scis excusare, et tolerare, et aliorum non vis accipere excusationes. Justus esses, si te accusares, et fratrem tuum excusares. Si portari vis, porta alium. Vide quam longe es adhuc a vera charitate, et humilitate, quæ nulli novit indignari vel irasci, nisi tantum sibi ipsi. Non est magnum cum bonis, et mansuetis conversari. Hoc enim omnibus naturaliter placet, et unusquisque libenter pacem habet, et secum sentientes magis diligit. Sed cum duris, et perversis aut indisciplinatis aut nobis contrariantibus pacifice posse vivere, magna gratia est, et laudabile nimis virileque factum.

Sed sunt qui se ipsos in pace tenent, et cum aliis etiam pacem habent. Et sunt qui nec pacem habent, nec alios in pace dimittunt. Aliis sunt graves, sed sibi sunt semper graviores. Et sunt qui se ipsos in pace retinent, et ad pacem alios reducere student. Et tamen tota pax nostra in hac misera vita potius in humili sufferentia ponenda est, quam in non sentiendo contraria. Qui melius scit pati, pacem tenebit maiorem. Iste est victor sui, et dominus mundi, amicus Christi, et hæres cæli.

Notes

1 ↩Passionatus is a rare form, possibly from passio; rendered here as 'ruled by passion' to capture the sense of being dominated by disordered affect.
2 ↩charitate rendered as love (charitas → love per lexeme policy); the theological virtue of charity is in view.
3 ↩cum + ablative rendered as temporal/associative ('among'); the Latin implies 'to associate with' rather than a bare temporal 'when'.
4 ↩cum + ablative with duris, perversis, etc. read as associative ('with') in an adversative context introduced by Sed.
5 ↩virileque rendered as courageous/manly; the Latin carries a gendered idiom ('manly deed') rendered here inclusively.
6 ↩sufferentia is a rare word; the sense 'endurance/patience under trial' is contextually inferred from sufferre and the contrast with non sentiendo contraria.