Pax Christi
The Pursuit of Peace in a Culture of Violence
By Sr. Julie Codd CSJP
Pax Christi USA's National Assembly met at Seattle University August 10-12. This year's theme was, " The Pursuit of Peace in a Culture of Violence." Jack Jezreel, the founder of JustFaith, gave the dynamic, engaging keynote address on Friday evening.
Jack's talk spoke about the daunting reality that we face in the poor, battered, wounded world. There is violence everywhere. It is the predictable consequence of a recipe we decided upon and carried out. That is both the bad news and the good news. The bad news is that we are responsible. The good news is that we can choose a different recipe.
He proposed six ingredients that are all critical for the church to be a potent agent of peace with justice.
First, the church must be deliberate about its relationships with those who are at risk in the world. Segregation of the poor, the oppressed, the exploited, the stranger from the comfortable, the secure, the satisfied, is the single biggest obstacle to the church's message and vision of peace with justice The reign of God is relational.
The second critical ingredient is justice/peace education. The Reign of God is the single most repeated phrase in the Gospels - repeated 142 times. It is the Reign of service, justice, generosity, compassion and peacemaking. Catholic Social Teaching speaks to dignity, solidarity, the option for the poor, the right of workers, care of creation, peace and so on. The only problem is that it is not integrated in the life of the local faith community, the parish. It is, to use a tiresome and even pathetic phrase, our best kept secret. People ought to know Catholicism is not primarily about bingo, picnics or baseball leagues but about faith in a God who cares intimately for the world, for the poor, for the stranger, for the vulnerable, for the enemy.
The third critical ingredient is, to learn a new lifestyle, a simpler life style. This may be the biggest challenge. Our lifestyle requires the plunder of the earth, cheap labor of other places, and the poverty of others. We can't continue to rely on that which will destroy us. As peacemakers we cannot only speak peace with our lips, but must with our lifestyles as well.
The fourth ingredient for culturing peace is prayer. To hear the call to simplify one's lifestyle, to see and respond with the heart to those on the edges with conviction and joy requires one to be a person of prayer.
The fifth ingredient is the commitment to nonviolence. One understated benefit of a commitment to nonviolent peacemaking love is it is a lens giving a capacity for discernment, a critical kind of discernment asking: Where is life honored? Where is it betrayed? The extent that any human institution relies on and promotes violence is the extent to which it must be eyed suspiciously by the Church.
The sixth ingredient is community. It is the engine for peace. It is the fuel for justice. We are made for each other.
Jack ended his talk by listing very exciting and creative ways he imagines to bring about this new culture. I mention but a few.
"I imagine Catholic Construction Companies that as part of their charter only build houses for integrated communities. I imagine peace newspapers and peace TV networks in every dioceseI imagine a series of prisons owened and run by the Catholic church on the basis of LOVE."
Let us come together to engender many more ways where the Catholic Social Teachings can be lived in our parish and diocese to bring about the Reign of God.
