Leadership
Blessed Are the Peacemakers
by Fr. Ron Will, c.pp.s., Provincial Council
I recently became acquainted with Fr. John Dear, a priest of the
Monterey, California Diocese. Only 58 years old, he has already been
nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize. I think he is a person to
whom we as Precious Blood people should pay attention. We are a
people called to hear and respond to the “cry of the blood.” He is a good
model. He helped draft Pope Francis’ message for the 50 th Anniversary
of the World Day of Peace on January 1, 2017. It is the first statement
in the history of the Catholic Church on nonviolence. With this mes-
sage, Pope Francis has entered the same league as Mahatma Gandhi and
Martin Luther King, Jr. in terms of understanding Christianity from the
perspective of nonviolence. This is active peacemaking, universal love,
working for justice and disarmament.
Pope Francis realizes that there is no just war. In this time of perma-
nent war, we must find another way forward or we will destroy ourselves.
Violence doesn’t work, war doesn’t work. They only breed further violence
and war.
There are countless numbers of cases of how nonviolence can work to
end war and conflicts. St. Gaspar gave us an example at Sonnino. He stood
in the breech between the authorities who wanted to destroy the town and
the banditos. Warfare does not work as a means to end war. Too many
people are getting killed, and too many people are getting rich from these
wars and killing. It is not the way of Jesus. If we are to become his mature
disciples, we must start practicing the nonviolence of Jesus.
Fr. Dear believes that all of Jesus’ teachings are a visionary nonviolence.
“Blessed are the peacemakers” (Mt 5:9), “Love your enemies” (Mt 5:44),
“Offer no violent resistance to one who is evil” (Mt 5:39). Jesus confronts
the Temple authorities and the Roman Empire. He doesn’t hit anybody,
hurt anybody, kill anybody, or drop any bombs, but he is not passive! He
marches to Jerusalem, engages in civil disobedience, and then is arrested,
tortured, and killed. But even in his suffering and his death, not only is
Jesus nonviolent, he is also not even angry. He forgives people and, when
he comes back after his resurrection, he does not lash out at those who
hurt and abandoned him.
After centuries of violence, we just presume that is part of what it
means to be a human being. We’re wounded people, we’re violent to one
another, and then we go off and kill or support killing. Unless we become
nonviolent, we will be doomed to our own self-destruction.
continued on page 6
July 2018 • The New Wine Press • 3