The Path to Peace

Peace has a price. What would you pay to have it? If the cost were measurable in monetary value, what do you think peace is worth? Perhaps if bartering were a means to pay for peace, what valuables would you exchange to have peace in your life? As we look at the world around us, each day it seems there is less and less peace in our world. The news reports give us graphic details about terrorist activity, homegrown violence in our schools, our communities, and in our own families. Everywhere we look, we can readily identify an absence of peace. Does peace come from turning off the news so we don’t have to be reminded of violence? Is peace achieved by burying our heads in the sand when struggles and conflicts touch our lives?

In 1955, Jill Jackson Miller and Sy Miller wrote a song entitled “Let there be Peace on Earth” and the familiar opening lyrics still beckon us to go within ourselves to find the peace we cannot find externally.

“Let there be peace on earth

And let it begin with me…”

For peace to “begin with me” it is necessary to discover, first of all, what are the obstacles to peace within me?

Fear, hatred, and guilt can be powerful obstacles to peace. We can begin by asking ourselves what we fear the most. Fear gives way to anxiety and there is little mental peace when one is anxious, fearful, or guilt-ridden. Jesus understood this. After the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, he appeared to his apostles: “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’” John 20:19 There are many instances when Jesus addressed his followers and wished them peace. The peace Christ brings us is a way to overcome our fears - he helps us to put aside prejudice and disordered ambition by seeking goodness and humility; he helps us to overcome hatred by showing others (even difficult people) charity and mercy; he helps us to diminish resentment by offering our forgiveness; he helps us to overcome guilt through his forgiveness in the sacrament of reconciliation; he helps us to rid our lives of toxic thoughts and actions by focusing on him in the Eucharist and in prayer; and he enables us to bring peace to the world around us by bringing us into God’s family, to be called the children of God.

But this kind of peace has a price. What are we willing to pay? What are we willing to give up to have it? Are we willing to see each and every person (even the violent) as God’s children? Can we love the people who hurt us? Are we willing to place our brokenness and sinfulness at the foot of the cross? In the midst of our sadness can we praise God? Is it possible to let go of our own justifications and seek God’s righteousness? These acts are the price tags on peace. The more we pay to God, the more we are poor in spirit, the more we shall have the peace we so desire.

Live life like you have all the peace there is on earth.

• Be an ambassador of joy to others.
• Live Jesus’ words.
• Dive into prayer with the innocence of a child.
• Simplify your life.
• Respect all life.
• At work, consider God your boss.
• Imagine you are living in God’s kingdom - create those conditions.
• Have a heart to serve.
• Turn to God every chance you get.
• Wish each person you meet “a peaceful day.”
• Stay on the path to peace.