Saturday after Ash Wednesday - February 25, 2023
The WORD in LENT: Isaiah 58: 9-14; Luke 5: 27-32
Peace can never be inaction; it is never silence. Peace cannot be conformism; it is never playing by the book. Peace is Justice - we are called to be breach-menders, restorer of ruined houses, rebuilders of ruins - that requires that we act, that we change first from within and then all around us. Justice alone can guarantee true peace and justice has to begin from our interior change.
The kind of change that we are called to effect is a change that is all-encompassing. It would not consist in accusing myself as a sinner and escaping my responsibility for the other, nor can it tolerate calling the other a sinner or judging the other out of bounds of salvation. Who are we to, when God wants to embrace everyone - however unworthy we are!
Peace consists in that act of justice - removing the yoke from the shoulders of the oppressed, doing away with our clenched fist in authentic forgiveness and generous reaching out, not giving into wicked thoughts or resulting words! Peace consists of a relationship of compassion and justice, making the other matter invariable of our judgements regarding what they are or who they are!
We cannot tink of peace, where there is no justice because peace is justice!