SFO International Council - Weekly edition
Volume: 7 - N. 7 - 2001 - February - III
From: Koinonia, 2000, N. 3
Fr. Valentin Redondo, OFMConv.
(Part III)
Peace is one of the goods most desired by humanity, but also one of the most fragile; the most desired good, but at the same time the most endangered.
The desires for peace are so inoperative and so inconsistent that often they become warlike realities. John Sobrino, when speaking about the massive and unjust poverty in Latin America, said "per se it is a violence against the poor majority and inevitably leads to violent conflicts; per se it is an attempt against peace".. The forms of violence that are the fruit of ethnic, cultural, sexual, religious, ideological, power and developmental discriminations produce a "spiral of violence" that is very difficult to control.
"Shalom", "peace" in Hebrew, does not merely indicate an absence of war, but "a collective living with well-being" [1 .. "Shalom" refers to a climate of fullness, social well-being, health, justice, life, truth...
According to J. Míguez Bonino "peace is a dynamic process through which justice is established in the midst of history’s tensions".
In his encyclical "Pacem in terris", John XXIII speaks about a "just peace" instead of a "just war", signifying social development, which places citizens and peoples on the same equal level. In 1983, the North American Episcopal Conference published a document titled: "Justice creates peace", along the lines of John XXIII’s thinking. The ethics of peace are based on an ethics of justice, which involves the proposal of a new international economic order of equality, in a model of development in solidarity with the peoples of the Third World and with the marginalized peoples of the Fourth World, and on respect of nature considered humanity’s home.
In the Old Testament, along with the "do not kill", there is an entire language of war and extermination on the lips of the "Lord of the Armies" of Israel... This language will be purified, because from the beginning God is the God of life, always in favour of life. This is transmitted to us through images full of tenderness: "can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Is 49:15). Or the Messianic future full of images of cosmic and human pacifism: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them..." (Is 11:6; cf. Is 65:25). "They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks" (Is 2:4).
"My kingship is not of this world" (Jn 18:36); more than a kingship that has nothing to do with history, we are speaking about a kingdom that does not feed upon violence and injustice, which characterizes the absolute powers of this world [2 , because it is based on service (cf. Mt 20:26-28 and the washing of the feet, Jn 13:13-17). On the other hand, Jesus says: "The Kingdom of God is in the midst of you" (Lk 17:21). Jesus does not oppose interiority to exteriority. Jesus proclaims the Kingdom of God as an alternative to social injustice, as a utopia of the new reality, which implies a structural and personal change. The old world founded on injustice is no longer viable. The new colours of the Kingdom are peace and reconciliation, which do not hide contradictions and inherent conflicts.
The peace Jesus announces denounces the division existing between human beings and His choice for the poor and the oppressed. And due to this, His condemnation is a consequence of the proclamation of a free and generating life of liberty with regards to the established order. Jesus’ answer is God’s peace, universal reconciliation through the cross: "For He is our peace" (Eph 2:14).
One of Jesus’ most original contributions is love for one’s enemies. This is an active and creative love, which liberates oneself and others, as asserted by Juan José Tamayo. Jesus invites us to put aside attitudes of "retribution" or of revenge: "But I say to you, do not resist one who is evil" (Mt 5:39). Jesus invites us to establish new relationships that are not fratricidal, but fraternal.
In line with Francis of Assisi, the Secular Franciscans have realized their vocation as builders of peace and reconciliation with themselves and with others, since, in the old Rule, before entering the Order, they were requested to pay debts and prohibited from having weapons... Stanislao da Campagnola summarizes this vocation as builders of peace in the following way: "primitive Franciscanism has changed the social preoccupations of its time into evangelical needs. Assuming the aspirations and the most valid contributions by the new social classes, it has contributed to overcoming the old differences and inequalities, inherited from feudalism" [3 .
The Rule, as well as the Constitutions, invites Secular Franciscans to be cultivators and builders of peace, trusting "in the presence of the divine seed in everyone and in the transforming power of love and pardon" [4.. And the Constitutions complete this thought, even in relationship with justice, with the following words: "Peace is the work of justice and the fruit of reconciliation and of fraternal love" [5 . But this initiative as builders of peace must begin in and be begun by the Fraternity, where acceptance, the fruit of fraternal love, and unity, are the sources of peaceful coexistence.
Fraternal life may be a stimulus for our society, which waits to see small gestures of peace to follow and how having the brotherhood as a basis, we are collaborators of institutions and ecclesial and/or social initiatives that send forth bridges of peace [6 .
The Secular Franciscans will be builders of peace if they construct it upon the foundations of pardon and reconciliation as recited in "Saint Francis’ Prayer" or "Prayer for Peace": Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hate, where there is insult, may I bring forgiveness...".
Religions are generally considered one of the most important sources of fanaticism. One must become a builder of peace basing oneself on religion, in such a way that our instruments of war and death may become instruments of edification and construction. Basing himself on a Christological conversion, Origen says, "We have become children of peace for the love of Jesus".. And paraphrasing Isaiah, he adds: "We have exchanged our arrogant and warlike swords for ploughs and our spears, which at first we used for battle, for scythes" [7 .
Hans Küng states that ecumenical dialogue is a fundamental requisite and a necessary condition for dialogue and peace among peoples: "World peace is impossible without religious peace. Religious peace is impossible without religious dialogue".
In this area, we must imitate Francis’ respect and warm
welcome towards those groups not having his same faith. At those
times; he never pronounced a word against them, but he presented
himself before them with the example of a Christian life [8 , respect, dialogue... This is how I
might indicate certain paths of ecumenical approach:
-- attitude of dialogue: deepen the knowledge about other
believing communities, with a deep attitude of listening and
respect; a creative attitude that experiments with new approaches,
opens new ways;
-- attitude of prayer: the existing divisions can be
overcome humanly. Starting with this certitude, the attitude of
prayer emerges, where Christian unity appears not only as a
duty, but as a divine gift;
-- attitude of search, of deepening and of knowledge:
conceding space for liturgical, biblical, patristic, theological...
deepening.
We must also be very conscious of the fact that the ecumenical
path is full of challenges and obstacles, which indicate that the
small steps we make are fragile, but very sure in Him who has
called upon each and every one of us and who with us, not without
us, is looking for the path to make us become "one".
Many obstacles can be found in the numerous sects that emerge here
and there, and often fundamentalism must be added to their
strength, which makes the ecumenical effort sterile.
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