Peacemaking

[Judi Richardson]

>From a Wisdom Channel interview with
Father Thomas Keating - an upfront Catholic priest:

Q. You have spoken of the difference between peace lovers and peace
makers*

A. By peace lovers, I mean those people who don't want to rock the boat, who are willing to make compromises that are perhaps compromising in order not to stress people, or to get into trouble, or to challenge people who will fight back. Or, for instance, in a situation where we need to bring something that is really harmful to the attention of the head of some organization, one hesitates because "I'm afraid I'll lose my job." Or if you demonstrate too much in some countries, you get put in jail. So a peace lover is someone who would like everybody to be at peace and so is ready to compromise even when the compromise is not proper.

A peace maker - (they) are the people willing to make personal
sacrifices to make peace. And to "make peace" is to say what needs to be said, prudently and discreetly, not necessarily by confrontation, but by
using peaceful means; but by taking action that may cause them to suffer
certain consequences that could be serious.

So in the Christian religion, the peacemaker is the highest beatitude
and leads to the greatest of happiness according to Jesus Christ*
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be the real children of God." So that suggests that God is interested in peace, and peace not at any cost, but peace that has to be a constant effort at diminishing the tensions that are inevitable in the diversity of the human condition.

In other words, it's an extraordinary work or dedication or service in
which you never quite win, but you keep trying, and this may not appear in your generation, but the seeds of peace*just think of some of the people in our time who have contributed to peace in their particular nation. Or who've*take Martin Luther King or Ghandi for instance*these extraordinary people, they didn't really "win" anything in their life. But they raised the human consciousness to some degree so that peace which resonates very deeply with everyone's inner most being was given an enormous reinforcement by the heroism of these people, who kept making peace, even in the face of enormous opposition and risk to themselves.

So you don't always succeed at being a peacemaker but this is no reason not to do it.

*
*
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