St. Mary's Church Elizabeth, IL

10/5

Create the right balance

READ EPHESIANS, CHAPTER 2, VERSES 11 TO 22

"True peace, "Pope Paul VI wrote, "is not merely the absence of war."  In Hebrew, the word for peace-"Shalom"-captures the distincition clearly.  The key to peace is Right Relationship.  This phrase describes a state of existence in which all elements of creation and created beings-most particularly those human beings created in the image of God-interact with one another in the harmony that God intended.  It is the state of perfection and thus true peace conceived of by God and described in the first Creation story of Genesis.

   "[Christ] is our peace"

                   EPHESIANS 2:14

       The book of Genesis says that this Right Relationship was shattered by the of the first woman and man.  The best evidence of our current human understanding of nature depicts a dymamic universe that is still unfolding.  Both pictures speak to a sense grounded deep in the human psyche that things are not as yet as they could and should be.  We sense the cold, hard edge of a wedge that separates "the angels of our better nature' (Abraham Lincoln) from the everyday reality we experience.

     "For he is our peace, in his flesh he has broken down the dividing wall."  By becoming one with this fractured creation and then, throught his resurrection, uniting all within himself, Christ has entered the breach.  With Christ as our head, the Church becomes God's "holy Temple." Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church brings holiness to the world and sanctifies it.  Our baptism marks the beginning of a sacred enterprise, one in which each believer is called to be a midwife in the birthing process of True Peace.

     In what ways have I been an instrument of peace?

Prayer Starter: Come, O Spirit of Peace.  Fill my heart with your presence that I might go out and transform the world.

Fr. Joachim