“I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing… Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Coming from the Lord who is meek and humble of heart, these tough words are not only frightening but surprising. St. Paul tells us that Jesus is “himself our peace” (Eph 2: 14). His birth was proclaimed by the angels as the dawning of “[God’s] Glory in the highest and Peace on earth…” Peace was the first fruit of the resurrection. “Peace be with you!” were the first words of the risen Lord to his apostles. If Jesus came to bring peace, how do we understand then what he is telling us in today’s gospel?
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” (Jn 14:27). The peace of Jesus is altogether different from that of the world. His peace is not a facile thing that settles for mere “peaceful co-existence.” It is not synonymous with absence of war or conflict. On the contrary, the peace of Christ inevitably invites conflict for it is the result of a constant battle against evil. If Christ is himself our peace, his peace is founded on God who is truth and love. Hence, authentic peace is not possible where there is untruth, violence and injustice. These are the obstacles to peace that Jesus came to set on fire.
Fire separates the pure element from the dross. The fire that Jesus came to bring separates what is of God and what is not. Thus, the peace of Christ is possible only in the context of conversion. It probes beneath the superficial compromises of inoffensive Christianity and draws the deep-seated malice, prejudice and selfishness in us to the surface for confrontation and healing. In the process, it invites opposition and division which reaches even in the families. For while love for family is a holy duty, it can never take precedence over love for God and love for Christ.
This is exactly what happened to Noe Dora, a Born-Again Pastor for 15 years, when he was converted to Catholicism. He suddenly found himself totally isolated since he was rejected by his family and his congregation. For two years, he took on all sorts of jobs in order to survive. Eventually, he succeeded to bring his own family to the Catholic Church, as well as many of his fellow pastors. Today he heads the Association of Pastors Converted to the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines with a membership of more than 300.
The peace of Christ is not the peace of the world. Sadly, the peace forged by the world will never prosper unless it is born from conversion. The world peace being brokered by the superpowers today will not last for the simple reason that the wars are being fought with weapons produced by the same superpowers. The arms industry is among the largest global industries with the United States leading in arms production and exports (40% globally) There will always be war in order to keep alive the lucrative business of arms production. And the sick irony is that the biggest producer of arms offers/pretends to broker peace among the warring nations and expects to win the Nobel Peace Prize!
In his celebrated encyclical letter, Populorum Progressio, Pope Paul VI wrote the often quoted statement, “Development is the new name of peace.” By development, the Holy Father means the “promotion of each man and the whole man.
In the Philippines our understanding of development is quite restricted. We usually equate it with physical progress and infrastructures. A rather limited understanding but good enough to associate it with peace. After all, where there are good roads there are better opportunities for farmers to bring their products to the market and improve their lives. Or when there are effective drainage systems, dikes and waterways, there is no danger of flooding when the rains come and peaceful living is safeguarded.
Unfortunately this is not happening. While billions of pesos are budgeted for such important projects, our roads are in constant repair and floods continue to destroy lives and properties. All because of corruption. The legislators hijack the annual budget and turn it into pork barrels for projects which they award to contractor-cronies, relatives and big donors to their election funds.
The fire that Jesus speaks of applies most fittingly to the fire of the Holy Spirit. It is he who purifies and renews us. He is the fire that burns all our selfishness and sinfulness and transforms us according to the plan of God.
St. Augustine defines peace as “tranquilitas ordinis” (the tranquility of order). Peace is the result of the order put by God in creation (the higher above the lower, spirit above matter, Creator above creature, etc.) When God created the world, there was peace until the ordained order was disturbed and destroyed by the sin of Adam and Eve (they wanted to be above God). Peace can only be achieved when the original order of God is put back in place.*
