Reflection for the month - July

All I want is a bit of peace!

How many times have I heard those words, often spoken in desperation, cutting across another trivial family argument, rebuking a demanding child, a barking dog, anyone or anything that has broken into private thoughts..….I want peace, time to sit back in a comfy chair, a dimly lit room, soft music, no knocks at the door and no telephone calls. Such rare moments of relaxed self-indulgence are no more than an illusion of peace. Real peace is not passive but active, alive and very lively.

Martin Luther King said, “Peace is not the absence of tension. Peace is the presence of justice!” Justice like peace has to be worked for, putting the rightful needs of others first. Peace means a relationship with others which is based on mutual trust, mutual need, mutual caring and love.

Jesus Christ offers a peace which the world cannot give, the Divine gift of peace freely offered which is there to be taken and used. It is all too easy to pray for peace when war is a remote affair somewhere else in the world, something we can do little else but pray about – and rightly.  Pray too that we may not condone by silence the politics of injustice and oppression. We cannot however pray for peace in the world and not at the same time struggle to bring peace into our own hearts and minds, our homes, our families, our neighbourhoods, our workplaces.

Give us your peace Lord, but let it begin with me.
                                                                                                                                                     David Peacock