When he gave his sermon upon the mountain, Jesus declared, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” Some people understand this to mean that we should intervene in conflicts in the way that Saint Francis did, putting his own body, we are told, between the Crusaders and the Muslims in order to stop the fighting. To act as Francis did, though, we must first find peace within ourselves. If the average person were to try this, the soldiers on both sides would probably chop them to pieces.

The common condition in the world is that of insecurity. A materialist point of view means that we live in the perpetual shadow of ‘insufficiency’ – the apprehension that there may not be enough of whatever is important to us at the moment: friends, food, objects, prestige, health, energy, free time, and so on. In reality, though, we can never be assured of anything on the material plane, and, paradoxically, unless we shift our focus away from the material, we will never fully enjoy what we do have, for it will always be tainted with anxiety.

To alter this, we must turn within. It is not necessary to abandon the beauties and comforts of the world, but the all-sufficient still point upon which we wish to rest can only be found in the unseen. When we begin to awaken to the inner world, typically through prayer and meditation, our view of the outer life changes, and we see it as if we were looking at stage scenery in the daylight. What once fascinated us and convinced us in the shadowy theatre now seems ordinary and unimportant. In time, we come to see our own identity in this way, too, so that the still point of Truth and Peace within sustains us.

Those who go this way are the real peacemakers, for they have brought their inner war to a close and found peace. In doing so, they have earned the title that Jesus bestowed upon them, having recognised that they are indeed children of the Divine Creator. So are we all, but these blessed souls know it with certainty, and that realisation gives peace and power enough for all the struggles. In an Aphorism, Hazrat Inayat Khan says, “Once peace is made within, one will have gained sufficient strength and power to use in the struggle of life, both within and without.”