Still Not So Easy

The previous note about peace, it's 'Not So Easy', inspired one comment offering the opinion that actually peace is easy, it's just knowing that the Lord's Spirit is with us continually. 

Thanks to the anonymous contributor for risking a response. I think it is hugely significant and deserves a reply. An easy answer calms our fears and frees us from thinking too much so we can get on with being peaceful, which is the business of life, and that is good. I will happily say peace be with you without explaining what I mean.

But since we have a moment, I can explain what I mean. In my opinion, peace is still not so easy. 

The sacred archetype of peace being not so easy is Jesus on the cross lamenting “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Matthew 27:46) What had forsaken Jesus would have made his pain tolerable or his death meaningful or something else for which we have trouble finding words so we use the word peace to hide our ignorance. Jesus on the cross was, at that moment, not at peace, demonstrating that, whatever peace is, it's not so easy. If I had been in that story, knowing what I know having heard the story every year at Good Friday, I would choose not to be the one with the hammer and nails, and not the one casting lots for the prisoner's garments. 

Look for me as one of the thieves who still has something to learn about peace and knows it. We thieves take what we need or want to ensure our own peace, but we do this at the expense of others and their peace. So there is pain and poverty elsewhere and disaster for unborn generations as the cost of our safety and comfort. We discover too late that peace cannot be stolen. It vanishes to be replaced by conflict. We thieves, in our ignorance, learn peace by failing to steal it. It eludes us.

Judging from the national news, we thieves are the majority. The news is all about conflict, except for the warm moment at the end where we celebrate some event like a puppy rescue to lighten things up so we can forget conflict and get to sleep at night.

We thieves have much to learn. Peace involves a collection of attitudes for managing conflict, each with its own entry in the lexicon. We need to be:

agreeable
compassionate
conscientious
co-operative
empathic
enabling
encouraging
engaging
fair
forgiving
generous
gentle
gracious
grateful
honest
humble
just
kind
obedient
open
patient
respectful
responsible
restrained
tolerant
truthful
trusting
trustworthy
vulnerable
and other things that haven't come to mind.
Each lesson in the peace curriculum calls silent attention to its gang of angry antonyms. Aggressive, selfish, xenophobic attitudes invite us to join the thieves even while we learn the language of peace. 

Peace is an art and discipline to be mastered. It takes effort and experience. It's not so easy. Let there be disciples of peace in our homes and families, 

in Russia,
Sudan,
Haiti,
Parliament,
the antifederal Provinces of Canada,
the disunited United States of America,
the brexified European Union,
the fragmented United Nations,
the left and right in a slanging match,
any group that is too fundamental
or too progressive
and too sure they know what's best.

Peace is the spirit of the Lord 
urging us to pay attention,
stay calm,
resolve conflict,
turn enemies into friends,
and make good things happen
together.

It's not so easy.