Let me ask you something.
What is the best place in the world?
For some, it’s that beach you always dream about.
For others, a cozy rental house on a family trip, the honeymoon destination, the mountains, a silent retreat, or simply home.
That place where you feel like dropping everything and staying forever.
And if you’ve never thought like that… maybe you’ve just been traveling to the wrong places.
But let me ask something deeper.
Do you really think those places are always peaceful?
That there is no chaos, no conflict, no noise, no disorder?
Because even when we change the scenery, the human heart remains the same.
I have been to truly paradisiacal places.
Places that make you want to stay forever.
But the longer you stay, the more you begin to notice something surprising.
Chaos lives there too.
Conflicts.
Tension.
Ego.
Sin.
Disorder.
That familiar pattern that makes the world… the world.
Reflecting on this, I realized something powerful.
When we read the Bible and look at the lives of the saints, we constantly encounter men and women who, regardless of the place, transformed chaos into a sanctuary.
Jonah, inside the belly of the great fish, a place of death that became a place of conversion.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, inside the fiery furnace. The fire consumed everything except those who belonged to God.
Daniel, thrown into the lions’ den, a place of terror that became a place of silence and protection.
None of them were in the “ideal place.”
But all of them were at the center of God’s will.
When we look at the saints, we see the same truth.
Saint Maximilian Kolbe, in a concentration camp, surrounded by hatred and death, living radical love and peace.
Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, inside a small convent, marked by very real human conflicts, immersed in deep interior peace.
Saint John of the Cross, imprisoned in darkness and abandonment, writing about the night that leads to light.
Christian peace has never meant the absence of storms.
It has always meant the presence of God in the middle of them.
So in prayer, God gives a clear answer to that first question.
Where is the true place where I can live this peace?
It is not a geographical place. It is a spiritual one
True peace is found at the center of God’s will, by being and remaining in the Church.
Here, the word Church has two inseparable meanings.
The physical Church, walls, sacraments, the Eucharist.
And the Church as the Body of Christ, of which I am a living member.
To understand this better, let us look at the sea.
Are you afraid of rough waters?
Of storms?
In the Gospel, the disciples are in the boat.
The wind is strong.
The waves are crashing in.
The boat seems ready to sink.
And Jesus is asleep.
The fear is real.
The storm is real.
But they forget something essential.
Jesus is in the boat.
The problem was never the storm. The problem was forgetting who was in the boat.
In another moment, Jesus invites Peter to walk on the water.
As long as Peter keeps his eyes on Christ, he walks.
The moment he looks at the wind, the noise, the chaos, he sinks.
Peter does not sink when the storm begins. He sinks when he takes his eyes off Jesus.
Our lives become loud, fast, and heavy
not because God has moved away,
but because our eyes have drifted elsewhere.
Here, the words of Pope Benedict XVI illuminate everything.
A man who witnessed deep storms in the Church once said:
“I have always known that the Lord is in that boat,
and I have always known that the barque of the Church is not mine but His.
Nor does the Lord let it sink.
He guides it, surely also through those whom He has chosen.
This has been, and is, a certainty which nothing can shake.”
He does not say the sea will be calm.
He says the boat will not sink.
Because it is not ours.
It is His.
When this clarity enters our hearts, something changes.
We begin to trust.
And more than that, we begin to be grateful.
Because it is the same God who allows the storm
who also gave us sunny days,
calm seas,
abundant catches,
and miracles that only we remember.
Peace is not found in the absence of the storm. Peace is found in knowing who commands the sea.
Shalom.
João Lucas, Covenant Community Missionary from Boston Mission
