In response to Pope Leo’s condemnation of war – did you expect him to support it? -- Vice President J.D. Vance said that the Pope should stick to moral issues rather than commending on politics. Somehow, I cannot imagine a more moral issue than war where people are killed just because they are in the wrong country.
Jesus just did not fold his hands in prayer and say, “tch-tch.” He took on the powers and principalities of his time. He didn’t get crucified because he healed people. He was crucified because he was a threat to the status quo of corruption, greed and unjust power. He made it clear that the kingdom of God needed to be established in this world.
The very prayer that Jesus gave us as a model calls for us to establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. And he followed that with the call for everyone to have their share of daily bread. Creating a peaceful world where all are fed is essential to our work as Christians, as a people of faith in the One who shows us the way.
Prayer for the Day
Grant us peace, your most precious gift, O God,
And enable us to be your peacemakers;
May we become a source of peace among the nations.
Planting the bond of friendship among all peoples.
Free us from ungenerous judgments and presumptuous claims,
Moving us from fear into hope and from anger into reconciliation.
In the name of the One who is your source of peace,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
Indeed, nonviolence is not just one implication among others that can be drawn from our Christian beliefs; it is at the very heart of our understanding of God.
Stanley Hauerwas, from his book, The Peaceable Kingdom
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, WW2 General and President (1890-1969)
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.
Jesus in Matthew 5:9