Weekly Meditation July 27, 2009

We all want peace and we frequently pray for peace. We Catholics at Mass exchange a greeting for the peace of Christ with those around us. When we do that with honesty we are also pledging to do what is needed to promote peace. The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) of the II Vatican Council speaks about the promotion of peace in paragraph 78. Let these truths take hold in our hearts and wills.

Peace is not the mere absence of war or the simple maintenance of a balance of power between forces, nor can it be imposed at the dictate of absolute power. It is called, rightly and properly, a work of justice. It is the product of order, the order implanted in human society by its divine founder, to be realized in practice as men hunger and thirst for ever more perfect justice.

Again, the human will is weak and wounded by sin; the search for peace therefore demands from each individual constant control of the passions, and from legitimate authority untiring vigilance.

Peace is therefore the fruit also of love; love goes beyond what justice can achieve. Peace on earth, born of love for one's neighbor, is the sign and the effect of the peace of Christ that flows from God the Father.

All Christians are thus urgently summoned to live the truth in love, and to join all true peacemakers in prayer and work for peace.

Gaudium et Spes # 78