Feb 18, 2018

Follower of Jesus (48)

Blessed are the Peacemakers

For they will be called Children of God. (1)

                     Mathew 5:9

Our world has been blessed by a large number of peacemakers over the past 100 years. Many of them suffered or died in the process, but still some rise to the level where we could call them Children of God. Many were/are not Christian, but their spiritual values led them to the point where they were willing to die to proclaim peace in our world, such as Mahatma Gandhi. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, come to mind, as well as the lives of the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, and many others such as Mother Teresa have led exemplified lives that merely by being present have generated peace around them.

We are all called to be Peacemakers, that is, to exude the aura of gentleness and love that generates the atmosphere most conducive of peace. The Beatitudes are all expressions of Peacemakers, but each emphasizing a different aspect of peace in our world. It does not matter what religion a person professes, or even any religion, but all major religions call to being one in God, therefore all religions call for peace, since if we are all one, to hurt another is to hurt ourselves. Peace is fundamental to recognizing the oneness with God as Jesus proclaimed in John 17. Genesis 1:27 proclaims that we are the made in the image of God, and there is only one way that can be: the image of God is the fundamental nature of creation, that image or unity of one that Jesus speaks of. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know You, I know You, and they know You have sent me. I have made You known to them, and will continue to make You known in order that the love You have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:25-26, NIV) Jesus speaks to show us who we are: one with Jesus and therefore one with the Father, as is Jesus. We are the Image of God (Father, Son and Spirit) made whole by our efforts to become the likeness of God as Trinity, through our innate unity with the Son.

Almost all Peacemakers have come through extremely challenging moments in their lives; moments that have forced them to either give up or accept and move through seemingly death itself. It is apparently one of the few ways that the ego, that part of our humanity that lives and excels in the dualistic mind-set of the physical world, can be removed as the prime driver of our lives. The ego has a very firm hold on our senses, so strong that only by a seemingly complete failure of our defenses is it possible to reach beyond our ego into the spirit-filled essence that is the true reality of the world and universe – and our very nature.

Quantum physics hints strongly of this, as the strange world of the very small reveals a reality that is at great odds to what our five senses tell is true. Peacemakers, at their best, occupy the world of fields and relationships that differs greatly with the perceived isolation that we see with our five senses.

Our senses tell us that we live in isolated realms where everything is separate, and all we can do is push this piece of reality around here or there, and this bears little or no relationship to anything else.

But quantum physics tells us differently, that everything is built up of unified fields that interplay greatly, so that by changing one thing here effects everything over there – as the saying goes, a flick of a butterflies’ wings in Chicago effects the weather in Beijing. All the universe is an interwoven network of what is called ”fields”, or the relationships that is the universe that we can sense. (Fields, the basic force of the universe, is a very difficult to describe in any meaningful manner, and all descriptions I have found are vague, as only the math involved indicates what they are. Since most of us cannot see math in our heads, mere words do not describe the remarkable interplay of everything that results in this beautiful object we call the ‘Universe’.)

We will continue looking at this beatitude next week.

Meditation

Creator of all, my Spirit and guide, I bow in gratitude to Your loving and gentle call. You fill me up, and lovingly create this piece of relationship that I call my body, my family, my loves, the beauty of the earth, and the breathtaking wonder of the universe. Everything is an expression of Your love, nothing lies outside of Your love, as noted in the prologue of John’s Gospel. I ask for peace in my heart, so that I may be the peacemaker in my environment. Grant me the serenity of Your Joy so that it may bubble out in include all that You bring into my life. I am grateful for this life, and all the joy and happiness that You have brought here, this beautiful world of Love, the expression of Your Being.

 

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