I have no magic wand to wave to bring Peace in and throughout our lives. But I promise as we walk in community together, as we seek answers to questions on our common journeys, that peace is possible. In the face of a war-torn and violent world that we see reflected for us on the evening news, it is bewildering to know where to begin in becoming a peacemaker.
If we are truly to be peacemakers, I think we must move beyond the notion of peace as the absence of conflict. Peace has to do with the fullness of things, with lion and lamb lying down together, not a world without lions.
If we are to have hearts capable of peace, we must have hearts capable of embracing the joy and the sorrow, the sacredness and the sin of the world. We must have hearts like Jesus. To have such a heart is a tall task. It means knowing that we are not strangers to anything human, that we have within ourselves the seeds of malice, violence, and death. Yet we also carry the seeds of joy, healing, and life.
If our prayer of peace is to be answered, we must be intentional in our choices. It is only then that our hearts can become places where God’s peace, so vast and courageous, transforms death into life.
Shalom, Paul