St. Michael's Lent 2026 - Reading #34 - Peace
Reading
Love God, love neighbour — and in those two precepts Augustine finds the origin of domestic peace.
"But as this divine Master inculcates two precepts,--the love of God and the love of our neighbour,--and as in these precepts a man finds three things he has to love,--God, himself, and his neighbour,--and that he who loves God loves himself thereby, it follows that he must endeavour to get his neighbour to love God, since he is ordered to love his neighbour as himself. He ought to make this endeavour in behalf of his wife, his children, his household, all within his reach, even as he would wish his neighbour to do the same for him if he needed it; and consequently he will be at peace, or in well-ordered concord, with all men, as far as in him lies."
Start nearest: wife, children, household.
Then the order of concord: "And this is the order of this concord, that a man, in the first place, injure no one, and, in the second, do good to every one he can reach. Primarily, therefore, his own household are his care, for the law of nature and of society gives him readier access to them and greater opportunity of serving them. And hence the apostle says, 'Now, if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.' This is the origin of domestic peace, or the well-ordered concord of those in the family who rule and those who obey. For they who care for the rest rule,--the husband the wife, the parents the children, the masters the servants; and they who are cared for obey,--the women their husbands, the children their parents, the servants their masters. But in the family of the just man who lives by faith and is as yet a pilgrim journeying on to the celestial city, even those who rule serve those whom they seem to command; for they rule not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they owe to others--not because they are proud of authority, but because they love mercy."
In the pilgrim house, those who rule serve.
Reflection
If St. Michael's Lent has a single reading written directly to you, it is this one. The divine Master gives two precepts, love of God and neighbor, and a man "must endeavour to get his neighbour to love God... He ought to make this endeavour in behalf of his wife, his children, his household, all within his reach." Then Augustine turns Paul's hardest verse on providers into a definition: "Primarily, therefore, his own household are his care, for the law of nature and of society gives him readier access to them and greater opportunity of serving them."
Read that phrase again: readier access. Your headship is not a rank; it is proximity plus obligation. You are simply the man God has stationed closest to these particular souls, and provision, in Augustine's hands, means far more than the paycheck. The man who provides everything for his family except the love of God has, on this accounting, not yet provided.
And then the sentence that should be carved over every Christian father's door: in the family of the just man, "even those who rule serve those whom they seem to command; for they rule not from a love of power, but from a sense of the duty they owe to others — not because they are proud of authority, but because they love mercy." Seem to command. There is your job in two words: the appearance of command, the reality of service. Tonight, do the audit: who in your house has your access, and are they receiving your care?