In his May 12 audience with the media, Pope Leo XIV said “In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaimed: “Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mt 5:9). … Peace begins with each one of us: in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others. In this sense, the way we communicate is of fundamental importance: we must say “no” to the war of words and images, we must reject the paradigm of war.”
Peace begins with how we look at each other, what we see and where we look. If peace is our goal, we can’t start out by wanting to win, but to love, to build bridges and increase understanding.
If our perspective is limited to our own circle, our own family or group of friends, we might fail to be aware of or understand the tragic situations in our community and around the world. Let the morning newspaper break our hearts with the images and reports of death, destruction and displacement. People’s homes have been destroyed, their families decimated and those who are left alive are without basic human needs. Their very lives are in danger. Humanitarian crises impact real human persons.
And we are called to be peacemakers. Peace begins with each one of us.
We make decisions every day that either promote peace or promote division, conflict and even war. On a personal level, we have to ask ourselves: do we listen to people who hold different opinions from our own? Do we try to understand, or do we merely think up counter arguments and ways to belittle or condemn them. Do we move out of our comfort zone to expand our perspective?
If we want to understand the big issues of the day, we need to be able to see them from many different perspectives, especially from the perspective of the people most impacted. For example, people who cross our borders without authorization are more than “illegals.” They are human beings with histories, lives, families, coming from situations that most of us can’t even imagine. People who are living on the streets are not just “too lazy to work.” There are complicated issues that have rendered them houseless.
If we really want to be peacemakers, we need to understand that we are all interrelated. We are a global community of interdependence. We are all children of the same God of love who calls us to love one another. We can take steps toward becoming peacemakers by getting to know people who are hungry, or homeless, or immigrants. Opportunities to volunteer with organizations or ministries that reach out to these populations are not hard to find. Getting to know people who are suffering can and will change our own hearts and lives.
Perhaps we can’t personally stop the war in Gaza or Ukraine, but we can still be agents of peace. We can cross a bridge that someone else has built, or we can join with others to begin to build bridges. Pope Leo reminds us “We are disciples of Christ. Christ goes before us. The world needs His light. Humanity needs Him as the bridge to be reached by God and his love. Help us also, and then help each other to build bridges, with dialogue, with encounter, uniting us all to be one people always at peace.”
Let our faith in the risen Christ teach us that we all one human family, united together in love. We are connected not only to the people we see every day but to our sisters and brothers who live in other places where life is hard and dangerous.
Let us look to the east and the west, up and down, all around, so that we truly see everywhere that the sun shines.
Jeanette Arnquist is a former Director of the Department of Life, Dignity & Justice for the Diocese of San Bernardino. She is retired and living in Tucson, Arizona where she remains active in social concerns ministries.