Blessed are
the Peacemakers
By Steve Martin
The world today is greatly in need of healing and peace. If you pay any attention to the daily news, I am sure you will agree. Occasionally a story of hope that is life giving and inspiring is told. Unfortunately that doesn’t happen often enough. One story after another tends to paint a picture that is not at all peaceful. We hear of war, famine, murder, economic ruin, political corruption, disease, natural disasters, and much more. When will there be an end to these tragedies? Only God knows. The world’s chaos and the pain it causes won’t go away through human effort alone. Still, we can be instruments of God’s peace… a part of God’s solution.
In fact, Jesus challenges us specifically to serve in this way with the words, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”1 In the Beatitudes Jesus offers a supernatural happiness to those who will follow in his footsteps. He calls his disciples to share in his saving mission. If we choose to share in the mission of Christ, the Holy Spirit will empower us to be vessels of His peace.
What does it mean to be a peacemaker empowered by the Holy Spirit? The Navarre Bible points out that the peacemakers are those who actively “foster peace, in themselves and in others and, as a basis for that, try to be reconciled and to reconcile others with God.” It goes on to state, “Being at peace with God is the cause and the effect of every kind of peace. Any peace on earth not based on this divine peace would be vain and misleading.”2
God’s divine presence alone brings peace. As Catholics… as those who profess to follow Jesus … it is essential that we seek wholeheartedly to be filled with God’s life. Through the sacraments, through public and private devotional prayer, through acts of penance, almsgiving and works of mercy, the very life of God breaks into our world and sheds divine light.
The Peace Prayer attributed to St. Francis is a powerful prayer which captures the essence of being an instrument of heavenly peace. Praying this prayer with a spirit of humble trust in God’s grace has been a source of inspiration for many throughout the years.
“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;
and where there is sadness, joy.
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.”3
Let us choose to cooperate with God’s miraculous grace and be transformed into instruments of divine peace. Let us humble ourselves and beg the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives. When we do, our heart will truly seek to be all we were created to be.
We will become children of God. We will be a part of God’s solution for His suffering world.
1 New American Bible, Gospel of Matthew 5:9
2 The Navarre Bible, pg 50
3 The Catholic Sourcebook, pg. 31