PEACE IS ITS OWN METHOD. I am thinking that the message of peace, of necessity, implies the method of conveying it, teaching it, living it—even waging it. Peace is its own method. It bears its own ethic.
WITH THE POWER OF INTENTION. I have chosen the word “waging” intentionally. The image is not inconsistent with its ethic or spirit. Peace is to be waged, no less intentionally and intensively than war is waged. But peace is to be waged not combatively, not harmfully, not insultingly, not belittlingly, not in any way that mitigates against its very spirit.
ENDS BESPEAKS THE MEANS. Whereas war is a violent, destructive means to—some would say—a hopeful end, peace is a constructive, nonviolent means as much as its intended end. It does not do harm to resolve it. Peace is a way of approaching problems and conflicts that incorporates the intended result into the first word and in every mediating action.
LOCKED IN A STRUGGLE. That does not detract from the image of “waging.” Core spiritual principles and life-or-death-determining challenges must be engaged with vigor, with intelligence, with savvy, with effort, with soul—peace must be waged with all legitimate capacity and every possible life-giving resource.
INTENTIONAL AND INTENSIVE. Let us lay aside our images of peacemaking as a soft or weak way. Let us conceive of peacemaking as an intentional and intensive response to discord, strife, and open conflict that calls upon our highest energies and deepest devotions. Let us wage peace in such a way that we bear and share its fruit even as we move toward its fullness.
1 comment:
Certainly waging peace strikes a cord and l make these analogies to good works based upon selected quotations from Albert Schweitzer. eg
Anyone who proposes to do good must not expect people to roll stones out of the way but must accept his lot calmly(if they roll a few more upon it)
In accepting this the most valuable knowledge we can have is how to deal with disappointments.
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