Be at Peace.

The Power of Peace

“Peace…demands greater heroism than war.  It demands greater fidelity to the truth and a much more perfect purity of conscience.”

                                  Thomas Merton

“The practice of peace and reconciliation is one of the most vital and artistic of human actions.”

                                  Thich Nhat Hanh

         There was a time when we thought that if we could design a weapon that had the potential to annihilate the human race, we would be so appalled that we would abandon war forever.  That was wishful thinking.  Peace.  That much desired, yet never attained human construct.  Jesus said, ‘Be at peace; my peace I give to you.’  Every time the name of Mohammed is spoken, the words ‘may peace be upon him,’ are said.  The Buddha described Nirvana as a ‘place of perfect peace.’  We desire it, we long for it, yet we seem incapable of attaining it.

         We know the power of peace—we’ve seen it in our own time in people who changed the world—Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa. They brought the power of immovable peace to bear on injustice.  In the last year, we have watched the people of Tunisia and Egypt bring about change in their countries with peaceful protest. It is not as though we don’t have a model for peacemaking.

         America needs peace right now.  It needs peace in its congress, in its business community, in its financial community.  Instead of pulling apart, it is time that we came together in peace.  It is time for every elected official, every industrial giant, every business head, every Wall Street banker, every citizen to ask, “How can I be an instrument of peace and reconciliation?  What can I contribute to creating an America that pulls together?”  All of this bickering and fighting and name-calling is not serving our country.  It is destroying unity and poisoning our ability to do what is needed to heal our economy.

         Peace begins in the human heart.  Until we work for peace and unity of purpose, we will be struggling for survival.  Let us lay down our weapons of anger, blaming, mule-headedness, and egotism and work together in peace.

                                  Shalom,

                                  Jane