Peace is in short supply!
I was watching the Television with a group of children. The show was a scene from the borders of Afghanistan where the Peace Keeping Force was doing their regular patrolling. Seeing the Peace Keeping Guards armed with weapons, one of the children surprised me with this question: “Father, how can they bring peace through guns?” I thought that was a relevant question.
It is an undisputable fact that world is in need of peace more than ever before. It is marked with war, violence and hatred. The number of broken families and wounded personalities are on the ascent. The language of aggression and threat make the situation even worse. Naturally every heart beats with the same question: How do we give peace a chance?
Where is the problem?
There is no shortage of peace talks today. Serious discussions and various efforts are taking place towards restoring peace and order. The hope for peace, however, is still remaining in the realm of meetings and discussions. Where is the problem? The problem lies in the methodology, in the approach. Our leaders are trying to restore peace either through compromise or by tolerance or by domination/submission. Any peace that emerges from compromise, tolerance, or submission is not real as it does not address the real issues. For example, through war you may bring peace in a region. In war there is always a losing side. Moreover, the majority of the victims of a war are innocent people. The defeated people will wait for an opportunity to strike back. The cycle of hatred is not broken but continues. In compromise, the minor party always feels victimized. Each is an example of pseudo peace. This kind of peace is only temporary and peripheral. As long as the problem remains, this pseudo peace is only a pretension.
The Fourth Way!
There is a fourth way to peace - the way of Jesus. According to the Bible, Jesus assumed human form for a single purpose: to bring peace on earth. When Jesus was born, the angels sang the song of peace! The Risen Lord always greeted his disciples with peace. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
Jesus used neither scare tactics nor might to bring peace but he used the law of forgiveness and conversion. The Gospel reading for the fourth Sunday of Easter (Luke 24:35-48) underscores this point. The Risen Lord came to the room where disciples were hiding out of fear and wished them peace. In order to make peace a real deal, Jesus did three things:
- Removed the fear from the hearts of the disciples
- Made them aware of their sinfulness
- Forgave their sins
1. Jesus removed the fear of the disciples.
People who live in fear cannot think rationally. Their primary concern is self defense. They won’t see the truth. Because of their fear, for instance, in the person of Jesus they saw a ghost! Fear blinds our perception and wrong perception leads to wrong action.
The first step in a process towards peace is to remove the fear from the hearts and create a sense of trust. The disciples were tormented by fear. Their fear was not external, but rather internal. Their fear resulted from a sense of guilt for betraying Jesus. Fear can be real or unreal. It can be from within or without. As long as fear exists trust is impossible and peace never begins. Jesus did not reinforce their fear by blaming them for their betrayal. Brooding over past sins only paralyzes our present.
2. Jesus made them aware of their sinfulness
Unconditional forgiveness does not mean unconditional approval of behavior. Peace will not last if it is based on denial. Jesus wanted them to be aware of the consequence of their sin, not for retribution but for their conversion and change of hearts. With this purpose in mind, Jesus showed them the mark of the nails in his hands. The nail marks on his hands and feet reminded them of the devastating effect of their sins. Before we move on with life, it is important to take the responsibility of our behavior and validate it.
3. Jesus forgave them
And finally, to make peace real, we need to bury the past and look ahead with new possibilities. The past events did not influence Jesus’ relationship with them, but the future possibilities bound them together. Jesus wished them well. Jesus offered them forgiveness and ate with them as sign of reconciliation.
Here we have a paradigm for peace. Here we have a peace mission. It is not through compromise or tolerance or might, but through understanding, forgiveness and mutual benefit. We are blessed when we become peacemakers. Peace is possible as long as there are people with Good will.
Hi Father,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect (and then some), I think your points are interesting but not realistic in today's world. We don't appear to have enemies who have good will. Islamists want to kill us and/or convert us. Period. They won't take "no" for an answer. In the face of such evil (another similar example is Hitler's Nazi party), we must stand up to it and stop it in its tracks. America has a history of doing this throughout the 20th century.
Christians and Jews throughout the world right now are not aggressive. Only radical Islam is, and as much as I'd like your suggestions to work, I don't see how they can in this environment.