Peace Begins with Love
Peace begins with love!, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55233 [retrieved September 24, 2021]. Original source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taniwha/7186831/.
God, Make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Maker,
Grant that we 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,
It is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
St. Francis of Assisi, Prayer for All
Where there is hatred, let us sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Maker,
Grant that we 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,
It is in dying that we are born again to eternal life.
St. Francis of Assisi, Prayer for All
Imaging the Word An Arts and Lectionary Resource, Volume 1
When I Pray the Prayer of St. Francis
When I pray his prayer, or even remember it, my melancholy is dispelled, my self-pity comes to an end; my faith is restored because of this majestic conception of what the work of a disciple should be.
So majestic is this conception that one dare no longer be sorry for oneself. This world ceases to be one’s enemy and becomes the place where one lives and works and serves. Life is no longer nasty, mean, brutish, and short, but becomes the time that one needs to make it less nasty and mean, not only for others, but indeed also for oneself.
We are brought back instantaneously to the reality of sour faith, that we are not passive recipients but active instruments.
Alan Paton, Instrument of Thy Peace
When I pray his prayer, or even remember it, my melancholy is dispelled, my self-pity comes to an end; my faith is restored because of this majestic conception of what the work of a disciple should be.
So majestic is this conception that one dare no longer be sorry for oneself. This world ceases to be one’s enemy and becomes the place where one lives and works and serves. Life is no longer nasty, mean, brutish, and short, but becomes the time that one needs to make it less nasty and mean, not only for others, but indeed also for oneself.
We are brought back instantaneously to the reality of sour faith, that we are not passive recipients but active instruments.
Alan Paton, Instrument of Thy Peace
Imaging the Word An Arts and Lectionary Resource, Volume 1
Exploring the Text: Keeping people from Jesus
When we read this passage in Mark we tend to focus on verses 43-48. There is a bigger context here though. This passage begins with John telling Jesus that the disciples tried to keep someone from casting out demons in Jesus name because he was not part of “their” group and it ends with Jesus telling John and the other disciples to live at peace with one another. In verse 42, he even says that if anyone puts a stumbling block in the way of someone who is trying to follow him, it would be better for him to be drowned than to face Jesus. It is in this context that he talks about avoiding sin (literally, ‘missing the mark’). Most people know to take Jesus’ words about cutting off a hand or foot or plucking out an eye figuratively and not literally. When we understand the context, it makes more sense, however. What Jesus is literally saying is that if there is something in us, some attitude, some perspective, that would create a barrier to accepting others that are following Jesus, even if they are different from us, not part of “our” crowd, we need to get rid of it. We need to be careful not to push people away from following Jesus because we see them as different (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:1-2, Romans 14:13, 1 Corinthians 8:11-12. We need to be at peace with one another.
When we read this passage in Mark we tend to focus on verses 43-48. There is a bigger context here though. This passage begins with John telling Jesus that the disciples tried to keep someone from casting out demons in Jesus name because he was not part of “their” group and it ends with Jesus telling John and the other disciples to live at peace with one another. In verse 42, he even says that if anyone puts a stumbling block in the way of someone who is trying to follow him, it would be better for him to be drowned than to face Jesus. It is in this context that he talks about avoiding sin (literally, ‘missing the mark’). Most people know to take Jesus’ words about cutting off a hand or foot or plucking out an eye figuratively and not literally. When we understand the context, it makes more sense, however. What Jesus is literally saying is that if there is something in us, some attitude, some perspective, that would create a barrier to accepting others that are following Jesus, even if they are different from us, not part of “our” crowd, we need to get rid of it. We need to be careful not to push people away from following Jesus because we see them as different (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:1-2, Romans 14:13, 1 Corinthians 8:11-12. We need to be at peace with one another.