The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - A

Jan. 31, 1999

 The sayings of Jesus which have been brought together in the Sermon on the Mount are part of the gospel. To each of these sayings belongs the message: "the old aeon is passing away. Through the proclamation of the gospel and through discipleship you are transformed into the new aeon of God. And now you belong to the new aeon of God."

It is reported that when Bishop of Worcester returned from the Oxford meeting of the British Association in 1860, he informed his wife, at tea, that the horrid Professor Huxley had declared that man was descended from the apes. Whereupon the gentle lady is said to have exclaimed, "My dear, descended from the apes! Let us hope it is not true, but if it is, let us pray that it will not become generally known."

The first of our quotations comes from the hand of Joachim Jeremias, a famous biblical scholar. The second, from Ashley Montegue a noted anthropologist. One speaks of a new way of being. The other the old way of savagery. Some years ago a man by the name of Desmond Morris wrote a book that implied that humanity is best to be described as "gorillas with guns." So which is it? Are we in a new aeon or stuck in the old? Is peace our future? Or, relentless savagery?

 Jesus tells us that the new aeon has begun. In his ministry, death and resurrection the old order is doomed to the "dust bin" of history ! The beatitudes are the way of life for the new aeon. It is the way of life that rejects the notion that human beings are condemned to violence and war. It rejects the notion that we are gorillas with guns--or more correctly, that we need be such.

Clearly, Jesus Knows that such a way of life violates our normal way of conceiving how life really works ! Doesn't he understand that peacemakers are often crushed under foot or assassinated--that brute force is often the way of the brutal and the world to get its way?

One cynic put it this way: "the meek will inherit the earth all right--six feet under it ! But Jesus tells us, and showed us, that the acceptance of the reign of God entails a way of living that confounds the present. And that is precisely it ! It must confound the present because the new aeon of peace and justice; of compassion and mercy; of risk and courage has and is still dawning. All who would be his followers are called to this new way. But unfortunately the beatitudes have been so often reduced to a private pious sentimentality of bowed heads and unmoved hearts rather than the clarion call to wage peace!!

The beatitudes strike with sledgehammer-like force because they are subversive of the present order that rewards the ruthless and violent, and tramples the poor and the vulnerable.

Attending to these beatitudes is to see the world from the perspective of the lowly--that is, the Lord's perspective. In living the beatitudes we are told the existence of hunger, homelessness, racism, the violence in our hearts and war are great scandals. No Christian can rest comfortably so long as the Kingdom still has not come in its fullness, and the Church itself, not fully responded to the call to be God's own children in being active peacemakers in all dimensions of life.

Jesus is very disturbing here because these are not suggestions. Like Moses, he goes up on a hill receives and transmits the will of the Father. Yet only the humble respond and understand this will. They are the people who recognize their need for God. They know that only God can give and answer to there deepest longings. Only God is God, a God that created all people in the image of God. A God that only wants the best for us.

We know these beatitudes are demanding and we know we are not perfect. The Church is a saved and sinful Church. But this statement is an explanation and not excuse for inaction or despair in the face of opposition.

As we prepare for the new millennium the beatitudes point us to a direction and lifestyle that can help the world move toward a way of life more in keeping with the beatitudes. This is our way until the final day when all will be judged in the light of Jesus. Until that time the Church journeys through history called to, and living the new aeon. Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way:

It may be that the day of judgment will dawn tomorrow; in that case, when it comes, we will gladly stop working for a better future. But not before."

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000