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The Meaning of Peace in ChristianityPosted by Jess Austin Michalik, 4/16/05 at 1:32:37 PM.
I posted this message as a reply on another blog earlier today, and I thought I would post it here as well:
Not so long ago I heard an interview with Laura Bush in which she was asked about the legacy of her husband. What would it be? She answered with one word: "Peace." This answer led me to return to the scriptures and from there to remember the writings of the church father, Augustine. Augustine remarks that indeed everyone wishes for peace and that this is in no way incompatible with war. In fact, the thief, after he has robbed us, wishes for nothing more than a peace in which he can enjoy the fruit of his spoils.
This reflection should lead us to the conclusion that there is all the difference in the world between "fighting for peace" and living peacefully. In fact, as peace is something that everyone wishes for, we can say something more than this. The pursuit of peace has a name: violence. Living peace, being peace, is the opposite of this state of war and violence. Instead of fighting for our kind of peace, a peace on our conditions, a peace after we have gained what we want and have cowed our enemies so that there can be no chance of our ever losing our precious gains, living peace and being peace is always a peace now. It is a peace that begins now in this very moment and is the beginning of eternal life and repose upon the rock of ages.
So long as we set conditions on peace, we do not have peace at all. Christ lived a life of peace in a world of violence, and this is what we are called as Christians to do. We are called to live a life of unconditional love, a love which casts out fear. We are called to "worry not about the morrow" to live each day like a lily of the field. So long as we would set conditions on peace, we do not have even a modicum of the faith which was preached by our Lord and Savior.
The moment we say, "I will be peaceful when…; I will be peaceful if…," we reject salvation, we choose time over eternity; "then" takes the place of "forever and ever." Christ Jesus showed us the way. He might have raised an army. He might have been the triumphant messiah that so many expected. Instead he showed to us that the peace we seek has already arrived; the unconditional, the eternal peace was made manifest in the blood of the lamb.
All this talk of justice and just war misses the point entirely. It is a cloak which we throw over ourselves to hide ourselves from God. "By works of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight." We are justified not because we have figured out all the rules, not because we judge and deliver punishment and violence in accordance with the just law. Rather, we are justified by faith, a faith which God gives us that allows us to be as peaceful and free as the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. Faith is nothing if it is not the trust that God will provide.
But what about Hitler? What about the intruder that has come to kill us and our families? "But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, `What will we eat?' or `What will we drink?' or `What will we wear for clothing?'" Every time we say "What if…," we again set conditions on peace and faith. But true peace and true faith are unconditional.
Thomas Jefferson says something like this when he writes: "He who would have both freedom and security will have neither and deserves neither." We can say the same of peace. If we wish for both assurance and for peace, we have already rejected peace. There is a name for peace with security and that is war. And when we choose war, when we chose to impose our conditions on peace, we do not deserve peace. No! not at all.
There may come a time when you and I do have to deal with another Hitler, with an intruder of murderous intent. At this point, here, we will be dealing with today's trouble and no trouble of the morrow. No doubt at this time there will be decisions to be made within the enfolding arms of the freedom that God has given us. But as of yet, as of today, we would make a terrible mistake to throw out faith based on a hypothetical "what if…?"
I do not say "oppose war." For in the very word "oppose" I have created an enemy. In love there are no enemies and no oppositions. We need instead to open ourselves to God, to pray and to learn to cast down all of our fears, all of our hopes and schemes, to cast down everything that prevents us from living our lives as Jesus did, as a shining example, of what is forever and always the only path to true peace, the path of peace now: Faith itself. |
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