[Announce] New Year 2009: World Day of Peace

[Robert Waldrop]

www.onpilgrimage.justpeace.org

Today is the World Day of Peace, in a world full 
of war, death, and destruction.

Lately I have been listening to various 
representatives of the Israeli government justify 
their attacks on the people of Gaza and the 
consequent"collateral damage" in the form of all 
these dead civilians laying around in the wake of 
the war.

It has been very painful to listen to these 
justifications for murder.

The Israelis aren't unique in their 
self-justification for murdering innocent 
bystanders, the United States government is a 
master at this particular defense of murder of the 
innocent.  "They are forcing to do this.  They are 
using civilians as shields.  Their deaths are 
accidental.  We don't intend to kill civilians. 
We only intend to kill terrorists."  And. . . "we 
regret the deaths of the innocents."  This, of 
course, is a lie.  Any regret they feel is so 
shallow it has no effect on their behavior, so it 
must be seen for what it is, a propaganda device.

We have used this "defence of good intentions" to 
cover our own conspiracy to murder the poor.  We 
used it as the bodies piled up in Vietnam, El 
Salvador, Nicauragua, Iraq (both times, plus the 
embargo, plus our gift to Saddam of poison gas 
technology and infrastructure), Afghanistan.  The 
Israelis are only following our example.

We are able to do this because we don't see the 
victims as truly human persons.  The innocent 
Palestinians blown to smithereens by rockets are 
not really people to the Israeli leadership, in 
the same way that an Israeli man in Jerusalem is a 
human person.  We the Americans don't worry too 
much about the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi 
"collateral damages" of our splendid little war, 
because we don't see the Iraqis as human persons 
in the same way that "real Americans" are human 
persons.

The anti-Israeli terrorists don't worry about 
their collateral damages either, because they 
don't see the Israeli citizens as human persons.

So everyone feels quite justified in murdering 
whatever non-persons happen to be in the way of 
national/ethnic/political/religious 
goals/priorities/demands.

It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to 
figure out where that world-wide trend is taking 
us.

Lately, it seems to me that Pope Benedict has been 
reminding us of the importance of the virtue of 
hope.  That's probably a timely message, since as 
I look ahead into 2009, I do not see much hope in 
the present situation --

+ The economies of nations across the world are in 
free-fall, a second Great Depression looms.
+ Violent wars continue unabated -- Iraq, 
Afghanistan, Palestine/Israel, Congo, Sudan.
+ Global climate instability is increasing, 
humanity's assault on Creation continues unabated.
+ The United States Catholic bishops remain mired 
in minutiae.  While the house burns all around 
them, they fiddle away their time, straining at 
gnats, swallowing camels, eagerly courting 
irrelevance in a time when the world needs to hear 
from the Catholic Church a proclamation, in word 
and in deed, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, all of 
it, not just those parts which are acceptable to 
the Republican and Democratic political parties.

But we live in the world we live in.  We can all 
feel like  poor Frodo, who as the reality of his 
situation dawns on him, plaintively says to 
Gandalf, "I wish I did not live in times like 
these."  Gandalf replies, "So do all who live in 
such times.  But that is not for us to decide. 
All we have to decide is what to do with the time 
that is given us."

And that indeed, though it be spoken by an 
imaginary character in a work of fiction, is God's 
own honest truth, as we sometimes say here in 
Oklahoma.

I haven't a clue as to why I am here doing what I 
am doing.  And as time goes on, I understand less 
and less of everything.  But somehow, that is 
fine.  All I have to do is keep on keeping on, and 
that's all that God asks of anybody --  
faithfulness.  We don't have to be successful, we 
have to be faithful.  Faith leads us to hope and 
in faith and hope we find love -- a true, deep and 
abiding love, a love that brings a peace that 
passes all human understanding.  The love of Jesus 
Christ, born in a poor manger, manifest in 
glorious epiphanies, Emmanuel, God-With-Us.  And 
suddenly, there was with the angel a heavenly 
host, praising God and singing, "Gloria in 
Excelsis Deo!"

If you are looking for hope, open your eyes to see 
the angels and shepherds and Wise Men bearing 
gifts.  Hear the soft lullaby sung by Mary 
Theotokos cradling the Infant Jesus.  Trust in the 
wisdom and strength of St. Joseph to get you by 
when you are feeling particularly weak and 
fragile.

So I can come to an acceptance of the limitations 
of my own understanding.  Here is what I intend to 
do.  I wrote the next 150 words in 1998, and I 
still think it is pretty good advice for living in 
troubled times.  We do what we can, with what we 
have, where we are, and pray to God that his grace 
will be sufficient for all the rest.

The Works of Justice and Peace

+ Live simply and justly in solidarity with the 
poor and marginalized and be a good neighbor. Make 
no war on them, rather, be one with them in 
spirit, truth, and love.

+ Hear the truth when it is spoken to you. Discern 
the signs of the times and speak truth -- to 
power, to the people, and to the Church.

+ Make injustice visible -- witness, remember, 
teach, proclaim, tell. Light candles, do not curse 
the darkness.

+ Protect the poor and powerless-- listen, learn, 
educate, organize, empower participation, and 
respect life from the moment of conception to the 
time of natural death.

+ Work for reconciliation with truth, evangelism, 
catechesis, orthopraxis.

+ Celebrate life, goodness, beauty, virtue, 
responsibility, and joy. Practice peace, 
non-violence, servant leadership, harmony, 
community, voluntary cooperation, and the proper 
stewardship of God's creation. Pray without 
ceasing.

+ Ensure fair distribution, subsidiarity, economic 
opportunity, justice, and food security for 
everyone everywhere.

 Robert Waldrop, first published on the Memorial 
of St. Mary MacKillop, AD 1998