Love Builds Up

September 11, 2008

Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

But if one loves God, one is known by him…[F]or us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things are and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are and through whom we exist. 1 Corinthians 8:3, 6

But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Luke 6:27-29

Piety

Prayer for Peace of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;

where there is doubt, faith;
where there is error, truth;

where there is despair, hope;
where there is sadness, joy;

where there is darkness, light;

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/091108.shtml

Seven years since the day that will not be forgotten. Love your enemies.

365 weeks. Do good to those who hate you.

2,557 days. Bless those who curse you.

Wednesday of the 365^th Week since “September 11.” Pray for those who mistreat you.

There has been nothing ordinary about the last seven years.

Yet who is not moved in some way by the importance of the message in today’s Gospel? Today, we remember (especially) the 184 people who died at 9:37 a.m. when American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the Pentagon at 550 mph.

The memorial that will be dedicated today in the shadow of the Pentagon is not only for them. It is for every one of us. Every one of us has a story. Every one of us is a victim of our yellow, orange, red alert terror. Every one of us has a friend, co-worker, fellow parishioner, or neighbor who was killed or maimed that day or friends who have marched off to Falujah, Bagdad, Kabul, Kurdistan, and elsewhere to fight this war.

Jesus has a story for us as well. And His story is not about fighting. He tells us to “Know God” or there will be no God. If we know God, then we will not act like everybody else. We will act like Christians. We will act like children of God.

Action

Have you seen that bumper sticker: “Visualize World Peace?” (Not the one that says “Visualize Whirled Peas.”)

If we want peace, we have to prepare for peace, not for conflict. We have to learn what words like “understanding,” “pardon” and “consolation” truly mean. We have to practice them until we master them.

St. Francis addresses God as “O Divine Master.” Theologian Leonard Boff explains that a “Master” is more than a teacher. A master is a special leader who not only teaches a subject out of total knowledge but also practices that subject in life as an example for her or his students. Jesus practiced the skills of peace until he “Mastered” them. Then, as a servant-leader, he showed us the way by washing the feet of the disciples.

It is hard to master anything if we practice the opposite. Much of what we study is the history of war, not the history of peace. We will never live peace if we do not study, practice and master what it takes to make peace happen. Gdansk and the Solidarity trade union was not an accident of history. The fall of the Berlin Wall without a single shot or missile was not an accident of history. The end of apartheid rule in South Africa was not an accident of history. The passage of the Civil Right laws in the 1960s was not an accident of history. In all these cases and more, leaders made a conscious decision to work for change through peace-filled measures. Where can you inject peace-filled measures in your home, work and life? How can you practice these techniques until you, too, master them?