The world, today, more than ever, is concerned with peace. In an era of fast transport and communications, powerful and dangerous weapons, and major religious and political conflicts, the question has become more urgent than ever. At the same time, we realise that there is more to peace than just an absence of war. If the issues that lead to war are not solved, there is a very real danger that peace may not be lasting. This happened in Europe in 1919 – the unsolved issues of the First World War led to and even more disastrous Second World War a mere thirty years later.
That is why the Catholic Church is concerned with Justice and Peace. As long as people perceive that they suffer injustice, they will fight to change their situation, whether it is individuals, organisations or countries. Simply put, just as Alcoholics Anonymous says that achieve sobriety, one must deal with the problems that drive one to drink, so, to achieve peace, the problems that lead to war must be dealt with.
But there is far more to it than this. As long as there is sin in people’s hearts, as long as we are motivated by wrongdoing and disordered desires, will human beings ever be able to achieve justice and peace? Is it not, ultimately, the human heart that must be changed if true and lasting peace is to be achieved. In John’s gospel, this is exactly what Jesus is saying when he speaks these words: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.” Jesus’ peace is something quite different to that which world leaders or the United Nations propose.
In the language that Jesus spoke, words often have more than related meaning. It is true of the two words “justice” and “peace”. “Peace” can also mean “perfection,” and “justice” can also mean “righteousness,” or just-ness. Peace and justice are matters outside the human heart. But perfection and righteousness/justness are very much internal matters. If there is sin in the human heart, there will never be true peace in the world; sin will always lead to war. And if a human does not have a just, or righteous, heart, how can that person be an instrument of justice?
Jesus understood this only too well. He died, taking our sins on his shoulders, to take away sin from human hearts. And as the Lamb of God, he was the only one who could possibly do this. In other words, the only way to true peace, and therefore true justice, in the world is through the freedom from sin that Jesus offers. In the Psalms, when David prays, “A pure heart create for me, O God…o wash me, I shall be whiter than snow,” he is longing for that purity of heart which the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross alone can give. And when Jesus says, in his Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers…” he means just this kind of peace. It is significant that, amongst the same blessings he speaks on that occasion, comes “Blessed are the pure in heart…”
More than two thousand years ago Jesus spoke these words and made them real through his death and resurrection. For two thousand years the world has ignored them to its cost. Who is to bear witness to his word, if not us? We are his witnesses. We have to become pure in heart. We have to offer to the world the peace that the world cannot give. If we really take this message seriously, small as we might think we are, as we can make a difference.
Fr Phillip
