So, today is 9/11. For Americans, this day is burned into our memories. I noticed on Facebook a few minutes ago, that lots of folks are posting comments like, “We will never forget” and many are thanking the men and women in our military.9/11 was a horrific day to be sure. And Pearl Harbor. And the Oklahoma City bombing.
And the day an atom bomb fell on Hiroshima.
My son’s middle school hosted a First Friday Celebration this morning. Parents were invited to attend homeroom and first period, and then join the administration in the cafeteria for refreshments and conversation. We observed a moment of silence in homeroom to remember.
Right afterward, I watched the students interact with one another. One particular young girl was wearing a T-shirt covered in peace signs – kind of a retro 60s sort of deal. Funny though, even as she wore the peace symbol, she wasn’t making peace at all in the classroom. The teacher had to speak with her a couple of times, and it was obvious that she was a bit of a bully. The girl sitting next to her seemed to me that she was afraid to look up – hoping to stay invisible lest the “peaceful” girl noticed her presence.
I sat there and thought about Jesus’ words about Peacemakers. It’s not enough to be against war, we must be FOR peace. We must make it. Peace is not merely the cessation of hostilities, it is actively and intentionally promoting the well-being of others.
I, too, am thankful to the men in women in our military and I recognize the realities of our world. But, on a macro level, I must wonder if making bombs constitutes making peace. What would constitute making peace?
The same is true for war protestors. Are they peacemakers in their everyday lives? The end does not justify the means and so protesting something that we do not make creates not only a systemic problem, but an individual one as well.
I will never forget 9/11. But the memory must teach me something.
No answers, just ramblings.
Peace be with you.
5 comments:
"We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves."
and
"Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peace. "
Dalai Lama
Not reassuring quotes in a general worldly view, but place them into the context of your own life...to me they are profound.
The William Barclay commentary on the beatitudes does a great job of explaining the fallacy in our usual thinking of the term 'peacemakers'.
"The blessing is on the peace-makers, not necessarily on the peace-lovers. It very often happens that if a man loves peace in the wrong way, he succeeds in making trouble and not peace. We may, for instance, allow a threatening and dangerous situation to develop and our defence is that for peace’s sake we do not want to take any action. There is many a person who thinks that he is loving peace, when in fact he is piling up trouble for the future, because he refuses to face the situation and to take the action which the situation demands.
The peace which the Bible calls blessed does not come from the evasion of issues; it comes from facing them, dealing with them and conquering them.
What this beatitude demands is not the passive acceptance of things because we are afraid of the trouble of doing anything about them, but the active facing of things, and the making of peace, even when the way to peace is through struggle."
We recently witnessed the death of a church because most in our congregation didn't want to get involved in the 'politics' of a major disagreement. In seeming to take the high road, they stood by and let evil run amuck.
Today wasn't first Friday?
Maureen,
What if facing and conquering issues constitutes building schools, fighting disease internationally & finding clean water? Nothing passive about that - nothng violent either.
Wendy,
Absolutely!!! But I think that's exactly what he (Barclay) is saying, your examples are people tackling something difficult.
To my eyes the mistake some people make is in running from a fight when righteousness is on the line. And I'm not talking about a physical fight. I've seen Christians run from ANY type of disagreement, as if our being a Christian means we CAN'T disagree. But isn't that the hallmark of a follower of Jesus, being able to work thru the adversarial positions we sometimes take. To many, the term 'peacemakers' can easily translate into doormats....I don't think that's what Jesus was saying.
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