Clarity + Charity = Peace

Peace: it’s a big word in today’s morning psalms.  “Too long have I had to live among the enemies of peace.  I am on the side of peace, but when I speak of it, they are for war.” (Ps 120:6-7): “Jerusalem is built as a city that is at unity with itself…Pray for the peace of Jerusalem…Peace be within your walls and quietness within your towers” (Ps 122:3,6,7).

We all want peace and unity.  But what if it comes at the expense of getting our way?  Then there are two ways to settle for a false peace.  We can seek “peace through strength.”  We’re at peace because I have the power to blow my enemies to smithereens.  We’re at peace because I have more votes than you.  We’re at peace because I have an authority that will not be challenged.  That is peace and unity, which comes at the cost of resentment on the part of the “loser,” a resentment that will fester until the opportunity arises to settle the score, to get even.

Then there’s the peace where I could get my way if really wanted.  But knowing the resentment that will result from getting my way, I pull back because I don’t want to be resented, but liked.  Knowing that some might react with disunity, I pull back in order to preserve unity, which comes at the cost of my own resentment.  And in me grows the conflict between what I sincerely believe, and the pain of causing disunity by asserting that belief.  And outwardly, what people begin to perceive is that I can’t be trusted, that I will bend to others for the sake of a false “unity” that is really just surrender.

Jesus was certainly a man of peace: “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children” (Matthew 5:9).  But in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem, whose peace and unity we pray for.  And within its walls, he “will be ridiculed, mistreated, and spit on.  After torturing him, they will kill him” (Luke 18:32-33).  So, peace is not synonymous with victory, and getting our own way.  But neither is it the same thing as surrender.

Perhaps, peace comes through a combination of clarity and charity.  We are clear about what we believe, and charitable toward those who disagree.  We don’t avoid telling somebody why we think they’re wrong.  But we presume that they too are seeking God’s will, just as I am.  If a vote must be taken, then let the vote be taken.  If we have the authority to make a decision, then make it.  If we “lose,” at least we can live within our own skin for having been true to our conscience.  If we “win,” then we can be even more open to those who “lost.” 

Then, whether we win or lose, we have the peace of knowing that the final “thrones of judgment” belong to God (Ps. 122:5), and that God will win the argument.  Whether we win or lose, we know that he who “lost” in Jerusalem, went that loss on the cross knowing that “on the third day, he will rise up.  But the Twelve understood none of these words. The meaning of this message was hidden from them and they didn’t grasp what he was saying” (Lk 18:33-34).  Let us find peace speaking clear words in charity, knowing that God will, in God’s good time, have the final word.