BRING ABOUT PEACE
by Chiara Lubich
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security” (Is 32:17).
“The spirit from on high will be poured out on us. Then will the desert become an orchard and the orchard be regarded as a forest.” This is the beginning of the text from which the Word of Life is taken this month. The prophet Isaiah, in the second half of the 8th century before Christ, announces a future of hope for humanity, almost a new creation, a new “garden,” inhabited by right and justice, capable of generating peace and security.
This new era of peace (shalom) will be the work of the divine Spirit, that force of life capable of renewing creation, and it will come about by respecting the pact between God and his people and among the members of the people itself, since communion with God and the community of people are inseparable.
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.”
The words of Isaiah recall the need for serious and responsible commitment in following the shared norms of civil society.
These norms prevent egoistic individualism and blind judgment, favoring harmonious and laborious co-existence aimed at the common good.
Will it be possible to live according to justice and to practice what is right?
Yes, on the condition that we recognize all other peoples as brothers and sisters, and that we see humanity as one family, in the spirit of universal brotherhood.
And how can we see it as such without the presence of the Father of all? He has already inscribed universal brotherhood, so to speak, in the DNA of each person. The primary will of a Father is, in fact, that his children treat each other as brothers and sisters, that they love one another.
This is why the “Son” par excellence of the Father, the Brother of each person, came on earth and left us mutual love as the norm for social living. To respect the rules of living together and to carry out one’s duties is an expression of love.
Love is the ultimate norm for every action; it animates true justice and brings peace. The nations need laws that are increasingly suited to the needs of social and international life, but above all, they need men and women who order their own lives on the foundation of charity. This order is justice, and only in this order do laws have value.
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.”
How will we live the Word of Life this month?
By devoting ourselves even more to our professional obligations, to ethics, in honesty, and legality.
By recognizing others as people who belong to the same family and who await our attention, respect and solidarity.
If as the foundation of your life, in your relationships with your neighbors, you put mutual and constant charity (which precedes all things), as the fullest expression of your love for God, then your justice will truly be pleasing to God.
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.”
A policeman in southern Italy, wishing to share with the most needy people of the city, decided to reside with his family in one of the newly-formed districts: there were dirt roads, no public lighting, no waterworks or sewerage, not to mention a lack of social services or public transportation.
“We tried to create with each family and neighbor in the district,” he recounts, “a relationship through getting to know one another and dialogue, in an effort to mend the gap between citizens and the public administration. Little by little, through an expressly created committee, the 3,000 inhabitants of the district became active protagonists in relation to public institutions.
“We were able to obtain public funds from the regional administration for reorganizing the district. It has now become a pilot-project with formative activities for representatives from all the neighboring committees of the city.”
by Chiara Lubich
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security” (Is 32:17).
“The spirit from on high will be poured out on us. Then will the desert become an orchard and the orchard be regarded as a forest.” This is the beginning of the text from which the Word of Life is taken this month. The prophet Isaiah, in the second half of the 8th century before Christ, announces a future of hope for humanity, almost a new creation, a new “garden,” inhabited by right and justice, capable of generating peace and security.
This new era of peace (shalom) will be the work of the divine Spirit, that force of life capable of renewing creation, and it will come about by respecting the pact between God and his people and among the members of the people itself, since communion with God and the community of people are inseparable.
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.”
The words of Isaiah recall the need for serious and responsible commitment in following the shared norms of civil society.
These norms prevent egoistic individualism and blind judgment, favoring harmonious and laborious co-existence aimed at the common good.
Will it be possible to live according to justice and to practice what is right?
Yes, on the condition that we recognize all other peoples as brothers and sisters, and that we see humanity as one family, in the spirit of universal brotherhood.
And how can we see it as such without the presence of the Father of all? He has already inscribed universal brotherhood, so to speak, in the DNA of each person. The primary will of a Father is, in fact, that his children treat each other as brothers and sisters, that they love one another.
This is why the “Son” par excellence of the Father, the Brother of each person, came on earth and left us mutual love as the norm for social living. To respect the rules of living together and to carry out one’s duties is an expression of love.
Love is the ultimate norm for every action; it animates true justice and brings peace. The nations need laws that are increasingly suited to the needs of social and international life, but above all, they need men and women who order their own lives on the foundation of charity. This order is justice, and only in this order do laws have value.
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.”
How will we live the Word of Life this month?
By devoting ourselves even more to our professional obligations, to ethics, in honesty, and legality.
By recognizing others as people who belong to the same family and who await our attention, respect and solidarity.
If as the foundation of your life, in your relationships with your neighbors, you put mutual and constant charity (which precedes all things), as the fullest expression of your love for God, then your justice will truly be pleasing to God.
“Justice will bring about peace; right will produce calm and security.”
A policeman in southern Italy, wishing to share with the most needy people of the city, decided to reside with his family in one of the newly-formed districts: there were dirt roads, no public lighting, no waterworks or sewerage, not to mention a lack of social services or public transportation.
“We tried to create with each family and neighbor in the district,” he recounts, “a relationship through getting to know one another and dialogue, in an effort to mend the gap between citizens and the public administration. Little by little, through an expressly created committee, the 3,000 inhabitants of the district became active protagonists in relation to public institutions.
“We were able to obtain public funds from the regional administration for reorganizing the district. It has now become a pilot-project with formative activities for representatives from all the neighboring committees of the city.”
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