RECIPE FOR PEACEMAKING IN OUR WORLD

---FAUSTO GOMEZ OP

As human beings, as citizens of a nation and of the world, and as Christians, our humanity and our faith commit us to building peace: to have peace in our personal lives and to promote social peace in our troubled world. We all desire peace, and therefore, St. Thomas adds, “We desire to obtain what we desire.”  The task of peace means continuing peacemaking through peaceful means.

From the human perspective, all men and women of goodwill work for peace. The believers of all religions are called to be artisans of peace, “to work together for the common good and the promotion of the poor” (Pope Francis).  

In the Christian perspective, peace is a gift of God and a task for his children. It is a grace of God through Jesus Christ and a responsibility for all the disciples of Jesus. Peace is one of the Beatitudes and a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Hereafter is my simple recipe for peacemaking.

• BE AT PEACE WITH YOURSELF AND WITH GOD

To be at peace with others, I have to be at peace with myself: Peace begins within our hearts (St. Paul VI). Without interior peace, I cannot give peace to others as a Christian is asked to do (cf. Lk 10:5-6). To attain inner peace, the disordered appetites, the bad tendencies, and the vices must be pacified. As the lyrics of the well-known song put it, let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.

To be at peace with myself, I - a sinner - need to be at peace with God, for sin is division, brokenness, and darkness: I need to repent and be forgiven by the good Lord. I have to be at peace with Christ: “Since we think of Christ as our peace, we may call ourselves true Christians only if our lives express Christ by our own peace” (Gregory of Nyssa).

I recall the words of St. Seraphim: Acquire inner peace and thousands around you will find liberation.

• BE AT PEACE WITH YOUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY AND COMMUNITY

As the love of neighbor is practiced in the first place with the most proximate neighbors, social peace must be lived, in the first place, by being at peace with the members of my family, my community, and my professional association.

To be a peacemaker as a member of the community, I have to be respectful, honest, forgiving, patient, and non-violent in thought, words, and deeds. I have to be dialogical, not dogmatic; democratic, not authoritarian; open, not closed within myself.

• IN YOUR COMMUNITIES, BE A BUILDER OF PEACE

St. Paul advises us: “Do all you can to live at peace with everyone” (Rom 12:18).

Method of peacemakers: from within to without; from the small community to the large community; from nation to region, to world; from parish to diocese, to universal Church.

With all men and women of goodwill, I have to promote peace peacefully. I have to promote with others justice, equal human rights, integral development, and the integrity of creation. I have to journey by the paths of justice and solidarity, by the paths of virtues.

• BE AT PEACE WITH THE WHOLE CREATION

The human person is a microcosm, that is, a unique individual, a rational and free being. He/she is also a member of the macrocosm, that is, a creature of the universe. A creature of God, he is a co-creator with God and under God.

As creatures of the universe, all human beings ought to respect and improve nature and not exploit it irresponsibly and dictatorially. I remember the significant words of Venerable Fulton Sheen: Moral garbage is the cause of ecological garbage.  

Concerned women and men, and believers in a particular way, must spread ecological awareness (detached from narrowing ideologies), and ecological responsibility, and work together for a share by all persons and peoples of the common heritage that is the earth, the home of all.

To be at peace with creation, we also need to be at peace with God: If man is not at peace with God, neither the earth is at peace (St. John Paul II).

• WE SHARE SOMETHING WITH THE POOR

I cannot love God without loving the neighbor (cf. I Jn 4:7-20). I cannot love all neighbors without loving the poor neighbor in a special way (cf. Mt 25: 31-36).

There is a loud voice in our world calling our attention to care, especially for the living species threatened to disappear. As Leonardo Boff reminds us, the most threatened species are the poor. Our humanity and our faith call us to care in a principal way with them for them.

 Let us never forget that Christ is – in a special way – this and that poor person: “For I was hungry and you gave me food…  Just as you did to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me” (Mt 25:35 and 40). I remember the significant words of the Canadian bishops: Let us live simply so that others may simply live.

• WE PRAY FOR PEACE

Inner peace and outer peace are gifts of God that urge us to cooperate with them. Hence – knowing our weakness -, we pray for peace: Prayer gives joy to the spirit, and peace to the heart (St. John Chrysostom).

Prayer, meditation, and contemplation - accompanied by repentance and compassion - are effective instruments to deepen and strengthen inner peace. Through genuine prayer, communion with God and neighbor is perfected, and likewise, peace is the effect of the love of God and of all neighbors, especially of the poor of the earth.  

Christians pray for peace in the Eucharistic Celebration and offer each other a sign of peace. After Jesus, who makes himself the Bread of Life for us, we are urged to be broken and shared with others. In The Prayer, we ask the Lord to give us “our daily bread,” meaning bread for us and for all, especially for those among our brothers and sisters who have no bread. We ask Mary and all the saints to help us be committed to peace, to peacemaking.

As united pilgrims on the way of life, as a human family, and as God’s family, let us preach convincingly the Gospel of Justice, Love, and Peace. I remember the words of the prophet Isaiah:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of one who brings good news, who heralds peace, brings happiness, proclaims salvation and tells Zion: ‘Your God is king’ (Is 52:7).  (FGB)

 

WILL YOU BE SAVED? WILL I BE SAVED?

Our Christian faith speaks of the universality of salvation: God wants the salvation of all peoples and Jesus Christ died for the salvation of all. 

Someone asked Jesus: “Lord, will only a few will be saved?’” His indirect answer: ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able’” (Lk 13:22-24; cf. Mt 7;13). On his way to Jerusalem to be crucified, Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God, which is “at hand” (Mt 4:17; cf. Mk 1:14). The Kingdom of God is within us as divine grace and love; outside us, as work for justice, peace and the integrity of creation, and in front of us as God coming to our life every day, and especially at the end of our own time and at the end of the world: God wants us all to go to heaven, however, the gate to enter heaven is narrow, and although many are invited, “few are chosen” (Mt 22:14).

Will we all be saved? Only God knows. However, it might not be so! The Lord himself speaks of the possibility of not entering heaven. Jesus says: “Every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit”, and “is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt 7:17, 19).

POSSIBLE OBSTACLES TO ENTER THROUGH THE NARROW GATE

(1) Those who pray but do not do the will of the Father – good deeds included (cf. Mt 7:25): “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Mt 7:21).

(2) Those who ate and drank with him but did not share with others, to whom Jesus will say: “I do not know where you come from; go away from me, evildoers” (Lk 13:26-27; cf. Mt 7:21-23). Certainly, they ate the Bread of Life but did not break it to share it with others by serving them in love. 

(3) Still others will say: “Lord, we listened to your teaching”; but the Lord will tell them: “You listened to my words but – like stupid men - did not act upon them” (Mt 7:26).

(4) Another possibility: those who failed to share something with the poor and needy. Jesus: “Depart from me, into the eternal fire… for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger…, naked …, sick…, in prison,” and you did not care for me at all. So, “just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me” (Mt 25:41-45).

We are totally sure of one thing:  No one will be able to say to God: “Lord, You did not help me enough.” Certainly, the Lord God helps us much more than enough. He provides us always with the needed grace to do good, fight evil, and be saved, but does not force us to give our (generally required) cooperation, because He respects the freedom He himself gave us.  

OUR PROBABILITIES TO ENTER THROUGH THE NARROW GATE  

(1) We practice our hopeful Christian faith: we follow Jesus, the only Way to heaven, that is, we imitate his life and practice his teachings, at least basically (we are sinners).

(2) We witness Christian love, or charity, which is the virtue of virtues, for the life of Christ, is centered on love, a love that implies love of God, love of all neighbors, love of ourselves, and love of creation, that is, responsible care of our common home.  Love, or charity (God’s love in us) is universal, not selective, and therefore includes also our enemies, and is authentically true, just, and free.

(3) We love all, and therefore we respect and promote the dignity of all and their equal fundamental rights, starting with the right to life. Thus, human life ought to be respected from the moment of conception (against abortion) to natural death (against euthanasia and the death penalty), and in between life and death (a dignified life for all).

(4) We love all neighbors, principally those most in need (the poor, the sick, the marginalized) because it is humanly good and particularly because Jesus practiced universal love and preferential love for them and all the abandoned in the world.

(5) We carry our personal cross following Christ. Following Jesus includes necessarily, following his Way of the Cross. Remember Jesus’ words: “If you want to be my disciple deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me” (Mt 16:24). The cross is part and parcel of our fragile earthly life. If we bear our personal cross patiently, hopefully, and out of love, the cross becomes light, even – like for the saints – joyful. Furthermore, love of neighbors entails, too, helping - according to our possibilities - those around us carry their heavy cross. 

LORD, WILL ONLY FEW BE SAVED?

Our faith tells us that there are three different states where people who pass away may go: heaven, purgatory, or hell. We hope to go to heaven “to be with Christ,” and with those who die in God’s grace and friendship, and need no further purification: the saints (cf. CCC 1023-1029). We might pass by purgatory on our way to heaven, and be among those who die in the state of grace and basic friendship with God, but still need to undergo some kind of purification (cf. CCC 1030-1032). How about hell? Our faith, the doctrine of our Church affirms the existence of hell, which means the “state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed [due to mortal sin without repentance and without the acceptance of God’s merciful love)” (CCC 1033; cf. Ib. 1033-1037). Until the last breath, however, purgatory and heaven are possible, if one cooperates with God’s grace and love, which are always available.

Is it difficult to follow Jesus, his way of merciful and forgiving love? Yes, it is. By ourselves, we cannot do it: we are God’s beggars, weak and fragile. So, we go to the ones who can and are most willing to help us. We pray: above all, to God our Father, though his Son Jesus our Savior, in the Holy Spirit our Advocate. Every day, we ask the good Lord to give us our daily bread, that is, the grace we need every day to be faithful, hopeful loving – and joyful. Also, we go to Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, who is our best intercessor before Jesus. We go to St. Joseph and the saints of our devotion to ask for help. “The Church “implores the mercy of God, who does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance’” (2 Pete 3:9; CCC 1037).

Wonderful, the play of Paul Claudel entitled The Annunciation of Mary. The protagonist is Violaine, a beautiful young girl who is blind and pure, innocent, and who trusts totally in God. One day, giving an innocent kiss to a leper, Violaine contracts leprosy, which she considers a blessing. Mara, her only sister, who is married and not happy, asked her sister: Are you sure of your salvation?  Violaine answers: I am of his [God’s] goodness.”  

  Will you be saved? Will I be saved? Truly, the question must not worry us, for we are in good hands: in God the Father's merciful hands! (FGB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 There are many avocations of Mary, our Lady, the Mother of Jesus, the Son of God, and our Mother. One of the most popular ones is: Our Lady of the Rosary.

The Rosary (from rosarium, or “rose garden”) was partly founded and much promoted by St. Dominic (1170-1221), to whom it is attributed the Rosary as the “Angelic Psalter”: 150 Hail Marys. I remember the story from the Dominican tradition: once, St. Dominic was a bit downcast: his preaching adventure against the heretics was not going well at that particular time. Mary appeared to him and told him: Why don’t you try the angelic salutation Hail Mary. It will make fertile the souls of believers. He tried – and succeeded. 

By the start of the 14^th century, the 150 Hail Marys were divided into 15 decades of 10, each preceded by an Our Father. Pope Pius V added to the 150 Hail Marys, 150 Holy Marys, and officially approved the Rosary as a Marian devotion, and strongly recommended its recitation to all Catholics. Pope Leo XIII declared that the month of October be dedicated to the Holy Rosary (Encyclical Supremi Apostolatus). 

The Rosary is the classical form of devotion to Mary. It has been described as an excellent prayer by Leo XIII, a compendium of the entire Gospel by Pius XII, and a beautiful garden of flowers by St. John XXIII. Inviting us to pray the Rosary, Pope Francis tells us that “The Rosary is a simple and effective prayer.”  

The saints have great devotion to the Rosary of Mary, including saints Francis, Teresa of Avila, Ignatius of Loyola, Alphonsus Maria Liguori, Louis Grignion de Montfort and Saint Teresa of Calcutta. St. Padre Pio was asked: How do you learn to pray? His answer: Pray Rosary always. Our Lady appeared to the little shepherdess Bernadette at Lourdes dressed in white with the Rosary in her hands. Mary herself prayed the Rosary with her in one of her apparitions. Similarly, Our Lady of Fatima.

In his wonderful Apostolic Letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae, RVM (The Rosary of the Virgin Mary, October 16, 2002), St. John Paul II proposed the initiative of adding the five luminous mysteries to bridge the gap between the joyful mysteries of the infancy of Jesus and the sorrowful mysteries of his passion and death that are followed by the glorious mysteries (cf. RVM, 19).

Through the beads (the decades), we go to the prayers (the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Holy Mary, and the Glory Be)-, and through the prayers, to the twenty mysteries, which take us to encounter Mary and Jesus: Our Rosary is a ladder and we climb it to meet Our Lady and our Lord. It is not merely a vocal prayer (although no true vocal prayer is only vocal!), but also a contemplative prayer: Without contemplation, the Rosary is a body without a soul (St. Paul VI Marialis Cultus, 1974). The Rosary leads us to the contemplation of the mystery of salvation in which the Virgin Mary is intimately associated with the work of her Son” (Dominican Constitution). 

We may pray the Rosary focusing on the divine mystery we are contemplating, Sometimes, on the meaning of the vocal prayers we are reciting. At other times, just listening to the voice of silence, the voice of God. In some places and communities, pauses of silence or the reading of the appropriate biblical text initiate every mystery (cf. RVM, 30-31). 

What it the goal of our devotion to the Rosary of Mary? Jesus, the Son of God, who is the end of all our devotions to Mry and the saints (cf. LG, 66). The goal of our recitation of the Rosary, then, is Jesus. Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort wrote: “If devotion to Our Lady distracted us from our Lord, we would have to reject it as an illusion of the devil” (True Devotion to Virgin Mary). The goal of praying the Rosary, then is not just learning what Jesus taught us, but “learning him” , learning from Mary to “read Christ”,  to discover his secrets, and to understand his message (RVM, 14). 

As Christians, we are asked by Mother Church to pray the Rosary, most especially in dangerous times, like ours; to recite the Rosary, in particular for peace in the world. And for our families. 

How is our devotion to the Rosary of Mary? How is our private and/or our common recitation of the Rosary? Certainly, to pray the Rosary well is a wonderful experience, as it is made clear in the lives of our saints. Indeed, its devout recitation produces good fruits, the fruits of holiness: love of God and neighbor, sensitivity towards the needy and poor, humility, love of the cross, forgiving others and compassion.  

We are told that St. Albert the Great, who lived a long and productive life, when he was old asked God often: Nunquid durabo? Will I endure - till the end?  Before his end, Albert the Great could only pray the Hail Mary. This impressed very much theologian Karl Rahner, who was also devoted to the Rosary and considered it a great blessing. Lay Dominican Saint Bartolo Longo (1841-1926), “Apostle of the Rosary,” dedicated his life to spread the devotion to the Rosary and to serve the poor – an offshoot of his Marian devotion (cf. John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 8). Fr. Lagrange, the famous French biblical scholar did three things every day: study the Bible, read the newspaper, and pray the Rosary. 

I remember a devout Dominican missionary in Batanes Islands, Philippines. After his ordination to the priesthood, he always had with him, in his room: the Bible, the Breviary of the Divine Office, the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas, and the Rosary. As he became old and his eyesight started to fail him, he gave up first the Summa, second the Bible, third the Divine Office. Only the Rosary accompanied him up to his last breath. 

Let us pray and promote the Rosary. Its beads are good company for the journey of life. 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us! 

FAUSTO GOMEZ OP