“Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”
-Matthew 5:9 (KJV)
“Shalom!” is a Hebrew greeting that
has several meanings, the most important of which is to wish personal
well-being, prosperity, bodily health and peace to the one greeted.
In the mountains where I grew up, when we met our friends and
neighbors, we were likely to say, “I hope things are well with you
and yours!” That, in our vernacular, was saying and wishing
“Shalom!” to them.
Jesus taught us in this beatitude that
peacemakers are blessed and are called the children of God, for God
is the Master Peacemaker, He brings peace to believers, and wants us
to be agents of peace in the world. Instead of hatred and strife, He
taught us how to pursue a better way. A peacemaker is not static,
hoping that peace will come. Instead, he is actively working to
bring reconciliation where there is hatred and enmity.
Those who work for peace are sharing in
Christ’s ministry of bringing reconciliation out of trouble. In 2
Corinthians 5:18-19, we learn that a peacemaker is part of our
Christian way of life. “All this is from God, who through Christ
reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Himself, not
counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the
message of reconciliation.” Paul also teaches in Ephesians 2:14
that the Christian is an agent of peace: “For He Himself is our
peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the
dividing wall of hostility.” Paul further admonishes Christians to
be a peacemaker in Colossians 1:19-20: “For to Him (Jesus) all the
fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to
Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by
the blood of His cross.”
St. Francis of Assisi lived and worked in
the 13th century A. D. He left behind an often-quoted prayer that
has been set to lofty music. The words of His prayer formulate the
idea in the seventh Beatitude.
“Lord,
make me an instrument of Your peace.
Where
there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where
there is injury, pardon.
Where
there is doubt, faith;
Where
there is despair, hope;
Where
there is darkness, light;
And
where there is sadness, joy.
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.”
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