An Audacious Lenten Prayer: Peace
With elections this week, cartel unrest in Mexico, and war in the Middle East, there is a lot to pray about in this Lent season. Jesus spent the 40 days after his baptism in prayer and fasting in the wilderness. During this time, he was tempted to trade in his calling for bread, safety, or wealth and power. Most Christians in the world consider these 40 days before Easter a sacred time of repentance, a time to recommit to the way of Jesus by focusing on three things mentioned in the Sermon on the Mount: prayer, fasting, and acts of generosity.
When we are in Lent, Easter seems far away. Unattainable even. Violence and bloodshed feel like our inevitable destiny. Jesus cried over the holy city: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:36-37) And “Oh, that you recognized this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.” (Luke 19:42) It feels dire, but I have reason for hope. The period following World War II is sometimes called the long peace, in some ways a result of the Cold War. War is not inevitable. We have learned some things over the years. There have been proxy wars here and there, but no major wars between economic powers or nuclear powers, thank God. I have not had to hide under my desk since those drills in the late 60’s and early 70’s.
The years 1945-2000 saw an average six global conflicts per year. That fell to one per year after 2000. The total number of deaths in these conflicts have not come close to the deaths in WWII, or the Vietnam and Korean wars.
Still, the recent escalation of conflicts in Yemen, Gaza, Ukraine, and now Iran, are certainly disheartening. Martin Luther King put it eloquently: “We must learn to live together as brothers, or we will die together as fools.”
We must be stubbornly hopeful. Post-war alliances have made a difference. Building bridges between cultures can temper our warring madness. Intercultural relationships dispel the myths that often divide and separate us.
The Scriptures cannot seem to stop talking about peace. Isaiah casts a vision where swords are beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks. In modern terms, he envisions repurposing the money and energy we use for war into agricultural pursuits that feed a hungry world. When you feed hungry people, they are less likely to bomb you.
The angels proclaim peace at the birth of Christ: “Peace on earth, good will to all people!” Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” The Kyrie from the liturgy of the Western Church that we pray every Sunday is saturated with this Christian yearning for peace: In peace, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy. For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy. For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the church of God, let us pray to the Lord.
Lord have mercy… The apostle Paul used the word “peace” in every single one of his letters in the New Testament – 11 times in Romans. He spoke of a peace with God that leads to peace between people. He did not accept the Pax Romana, Roman peace through violent and cruel domination, but peace through the way of Jesus, kindness to the stranger and the enemy, even in the face of danger, the way of the cross. This message of the cross is foolishness to the world, but those in Christ know it to be the only hope for humanity.
So, in this time of preparation for the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, let our Lenten discipline be to pray for peace daily. Those of every faith and no faith, pray, for prayer is the yearning of the heart. Give voice to your yearning and your actions will follow. Pray for the peace of the whole world, peace in the Middle East, peace in Ukraine, and peace in our country. Pray it fearlessly. Pray that God will make us peacemakers. There may be no better way to prepare our hearts for Easter feast.
A Prayer of St. Francis
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I 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, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.