Why Jesus calls us to be peacemakers

by Tony Magliano · February 8, 2013

In his message for the World Day of Peace, which we observed on New Year�s Day and which is intended to guide us throughout 2013, Pope Benedict laid out for us the foundation upon which the Church�s ministry for world peace must be built.

“Unbridled capitalism cannot be trusted to work for the common good of humanity.”

Using a challenging proclamation from the Second Vatican Council, the pope wrote that Christians must be committed �to sharing humanity�s joys and hopes, grief and anguish�.

The Holy Father reminded us that God�s peace is much more than the absence of war�it is the universal experience of justice and love.

We not permitted to sit on the comfortable sidelines of life, safely viewing from afar humanity�s problems. Rather, we must put ourselves into the muck and mire of this world.

�Peace is an order enlivened and integrated by love, in such a way that we feel the needs of others as our own, share our goods with others and work throughout the world for greater communion in spiritual values,� Pope Benedict wrote.

The pope also confronted the personal and structural evils of greed, inequality and violence: �It is alarming to see hotbeds of tension and conflict caused by growing instances of inequality between rich and poor, by the prevalence of a selfish and individualistic mindset which also finds expression in an unregulated financial capitalism.�

In a documentary for US television, Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream, Alex Gibney stated that while income disparity has always existed in the United States, it has accelerated sharply over the last 40 years. As of 2010, the 400 richest Americans controlled more wealth than the bottom 50% of the US population. Just think about it, 400 people control more wealth than 150 million Americans combined.

And the disparity in South Africa is even greater.

Pope Benedict laments that the predominant economic model of recent decades calls for seeking maximum profit and consumption�based on an individualistic and self-centred mentality�while considering human beings as mere tools in economic competitiveness.

Unbridled capitalism cannot be trusted to work for the common good of humanity. It must legislatively be forced to do so. But instead, the political and economic system is being rigged to outrageously favour the wealthy over the middle-class and the poor.

And for those struggling to survive in extreme poverty throughout the world�1,4 billion human beings�the inequality between them and the rich is tragically unjust.

In the face of �unregulated financial capitalism� the pope is calling us to build �a new economic model� for the sake of the common good�providing full dignified employment, food security for every person, and peaceful coexistence with all creation.

The Holy Father maintains that the path to �peace is above all that of respect for human life in all its many aspects�True peacemakers, then, are those who love, defend and promote human life in all its dimensions � Anyone who loves peace cannot tolerate attacks and crimes against life.�

It�s morally wrong and intellectually dishonest to claim oneself a peacemaker while permitting abortion�brutal warfare against the unborn.

Following the example of Jesus, peacemakers cannot accept any form of violence. Instead, in the words of Pope Benedict, we must be committed to the truth that �evil is in fact overcome by good�.

�Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God� (Mt 5:9).