April, 1984
Jesus Christ came on earth to establish peace between God and the sinful human race. Therefore, the title “peacemaker” aptly describes Jesus.
Basically the meaning of “priest” and “priesthood” is peacemaker, for a priest is one who attempts to reconcile persons who have become alienated from each other and from God. The primary work of every priest is to reconcile humanity to God from whom they have become alienated by sin.
The second task of a priest is to do all that is possible to reconcile enemies or people who have become estranged from each other. Thus, all who make a contribution toward peace at any level are doing a priestly work and are sharing in the priesthood of Jesus Christ.
Peacemaking, therefore, is the most important task that any Christian can undertake.
This would be true in any age but is doubly true in the present world situation where the danger of a nuclear holocaust is very real, and violence of all kinds is rampant. Therefore, we need to study the life of Jesus to see how he went about his priestly task of creating peace.
Jesus was successful as a peacemaker because there was always peace between his will and the will of the heavenly Father. This was not always easy. During the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, he struggled to reconcile his will with the will of his Father. “Oh, Father, if it be possible, take this cup of suffering away from me.” Even a year before this (Mark 8: 31: 33.) we find him struggling to submit to the will of his Father.
When one realizes the interior struggle Jesus was undergoing, his severity and anger toward Peter at that time is understandable. Jesus had to hold on for dear life to his decision to accept his Father’s will. Therefore, when Peter offered his dissuasion, Jesus turned on him in anger: “You devil, get behind me. You are no longer on God’s side but you are judging by man’s standards.”
Nevertheless, difficult as it was, he accepted the Father’s will, saying, “I do always the things that please my heavenly Father” (John 8: 28). This total acceptance of the Father’s will is the key to Jesus’ inner peace and to his success as a peacemaker among human beings.
Total acceptance of God’s will in our lives is the key to our inner peace and peacemaking.
We cannot expect it to be any easier for us than it was for Jesus. It is comforting to know that Jesus also found it difficult at times to accept and do his Father’s will. At the age of twelve years Jesus was lost for three days in the temple. When Joseph and Mary reprimanded him, Jesus said: “Did you not know that I must be about the things of my Father?”
Even at this early age, Jesus was anxious to begin his public ministry of teaching; yet it was the Father’s will for him to wait another twenty years before undertaking in earnest the mission of proclaiming the good news. In view of his conduct in the temple, we can surmise that to remain silent and not “go on the road” to begin his preaching for almost twenty years was not easy.
There is also reason to conclude that Jesus may have disliked his work as a carpenter, for never in his public ministry does he ever talk about his carpentry work. Not a single parable or example among the numerous ones which Jesus used has any relationship to carpentry.
Why should Jesus have disliked his work as a carpenter? Would it be perhaps because he was chaffing at the bit to get on with the task of preaching and public peacemaking, the very reason God sent him to earth? What a marvelous model and example Jesus is for all of us who may be unhappy in the work or tasks which circumstances have forced upon us!
Each of us in our lonely and obscure life can work for world peace and all other forms of peace just as Jesus did while spending seven-eighths of his life hidden away in the little village of Nazareth. And we can be certain that none of that time of the hidden life of Jesus was wasted.
Everything he did contributed to bringing God’s peace to the world. The key was to do what his Father willed. As he told his disciples at the Samaritan well, “Doing the will of him who sent me and bringing his work to completion is my food” (Jn 4:34).
Our Contribution to Peace in the World
Peacemaking is accomplished not only around the tables where statesmen and diplomats gather, but also at many other levels. Every simple laborer, poor or ordinary person who wholeheartedly accepts God’s will and tries to carry it out is working for peace.
Each one of us can make a substantial contribution to the peace of the world by accepting our destiny and vocation in the world as being God’s will for us. For then inner peace is ours; and once our inner turmoil is subdued in true acceptance of God’s will, we will be able to bring peace to others.
One can also imagine it must have been difficult for Jesus to remain silent year after year when he came to Jerusalem for the annual Passover Celebration. With his tremendous reverence for the Father and his Father’s House, no doubt his blood boiled as he saw the haggling, the buying and selling, the money-changing within the Temple precincts. The pent-up anger must have continued to mount over the years, and finally culminated in his outburst during the first Passover of his public ministry.
According to the Gospel of St. John: “He made a whip of cords and drove the sheep and oxen out of the temple area and knocked over the money-changers’ tables, spilling their coins. ‘Get them out of here’, he yelled. ‘Stop turning my Father’s house into a market place'” (Jn 2:15-17).
We can be reasonably sure that this zeal did not just begin at that moment but had been seething beneath the surface for years. Yet, he waited until it was his Father’s will for him to cleanse the temple.
In our efforts at peacemaking we must follow the example of Jesus. If necessary, we must be willing to wait for many years until the Father’s will has been made clear as to what steps we should take; but let us not imagine that these years of hidden life are not making any contribution toward world peace.
During this time we can study and learn about social and political issues; we can study and consider examples of peacemakers from history, psychology, and religion. We can become enlightened and knowledgeable so that we have an informed opinion and clear minds.
And, as long as our will is in accord with the will of God and we continue to heed that divine will, we will make our own particular contribution toward world peace that God’s providence has called us to make.
This is the third and final posting on Inner Peace.