“If you had known the things that make for peace.” So weeps Jesus as looks out over Jerusalem, right before he enters the city for Passover—that is, right before what we now call “the Triumphal Entry.”
Two thousand years later, we weep as we seek to know “the things that make for peace.” And yet the truth is that Jesus, as he uttered those words looking brokenheartedly at his beloved Jerusalem, was telling us that he was about to show us exactly what makes for peace. Jesus was saying that, in the events that would transpire that week, he was revealing to Jerusalem, to us and to all of humanity the way of peace, shalom.
Who doesn’t want peace? Who isn’t seeking the shalom—total well-being of mind, heart, body, soul in each person and in all the world? We all want that!
Well, my friends, then pay attention. Keep your eyes open. Listen attentively. Be awake, be aware. Because this week, this Holy Week, Jesus in his every word and gesture shows us what makes for peace. Do you want peace? Do I? Then we are invited to enter the mystery of SHALOM that unfolds before our eyes this week.
As soon as Jesus begins his entrance into Jerusalem, he is challenging us to choose: “Do you want peace?”, he asks. “Then decide: do you follow Pilate and his “Pax Romana” cavalcade as they pound their way into Jerusalem on horses with shields and weapons of war to “keep the peace” for Passover and make sure no one steps out of line or dares to question the status quo? Or, do you follow Jesus and his group of ragtag disciples as they head into Jerusalem with their leader on a donkey and with hope for something new in their hearts?
Well, of course, we respond, we follow Jesus! Good. Then learn from him the things that make for peace:
- Openness to all people, a heart of hospitality that recognizes a child of the Father in absolutely everyone and treats everyone accordingly.
- A rejection of every form of violence
- An end to scapegoating certain persons or groups of people as the reason for the present “problems” of the world (e.g. the poor, immigrants, gays, transgender persons, people from a religion other than your own, the list goes on and on…)
- A readiness to respond to all behavior with truth and love
- A willingness to share in the sufferings of those who are oppressed and impeded from living freely as children of God
- Courage to speak the truth no matter what the consequences
- A willingness to forgive seventy times seven
- A conviction that the way of the Father, the way of Love does and will conquer all that is unloving
- A taking-on of the very mind and heart of God
On this Holiest of Weeks, my friends, Jesus weeps with us as he looks at all the obstacles to peace in our world. And Jesus, once again, invites us to follow him and learn from him and live in him the ways of peace.
Let’s accompany him in prayer and ritual this Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And let’s be renewed as he breathes his SHALOM upon us for the very life of the world.
Peace and every good,
Father Liam