Matteo Zuppi
Cardinal, Archbishop of Bologna, President of the Italian Bishops' Conferencebiography
It will happen in the final days that the mountain of Yahweh's house will rise higher than the mountains and tower above the heights. Then all the nations will stream to it, many peoples will come to it and say, 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob that he may teach us his ways so that we may walk in his paths.' For the Law will issue from Zion and the word of Yahweh from Jerusalem. Then he will judge between the nations and arbitrate between many peoples. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation, no longer will they learn how to make war. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in Yahweh's light.
Is 2,2-5
When will peace take over - an apparently impossible dream in a world ravaged by the pandemics of war, where granaries are emptied, and arsenals are filled with weapons?
Will peace ever come to the trenches of Ukraine or in forgotten Syria; to those who are abandoned in despair in the desert with no water and no lifeline; to those who are stranded in the immensity of the sea, exposed to the might of water and left alone in anguish?
Will peace ever come, when life is stolen by widespread indifference, by recent and less recent complicity with violence - that always stems rom prejudice and ignorance that take over hearts and minds, and inevitably end up arming the hands?
Will peace ever come if we repeatedly waste opportunities for change, seduced by our ego that makes us believe that our own well-being will result from the search for individual happiness, keeping ourselves busy with frivolous concerns, as if sitting in peace were sufficient to achieve true peace?
Will peace ever come if we prioritize our wounds, regarding ourselves as too weak to engage in humility to serve the least among the brothers of Jesus?
Will the time of the Lord ever come in times where people believe to have plenty of time, and take the luxury of wasting it, losing opportunities, incapable of drawing lessons from the endless suffering which is a consequence of the pandemics of war?
Today the prophet indicates us the mountain of the Lord's temple, the new Jerusalem that will help us to lift up our eyes.
In these days we have looked up to the mountain and the Lord’s temple. The time is now, the time has come. Jesus is our time - the pathway God indicated to us to reach the high mountain. We witnessed the temple of the Lord, the encounter of peoples, all brothers. Let us not fear, let us not say “I am too young” or “I am too old” but let us learn, individually and together, and repeat: Here am I, ready to practice the art of love. Let us never stop learning.
We are prophets of peace who break the spears of prejudice, which creates distance and scars. We will heal the wounds of our own heart if we take care of the wounds of our neighbours.
Let us not practice the art of war, nor cultivate hatred, nor repay evil with evil; let us not humiliate or override our neighbours because of being uncapable of true love. Let us learn the art of living, the art of God: love each other, recognize the beauty of each person, the reciprocal gift we represent for each other. It is the art we never stop learning, the art that gives life and plenitude to all people.
War is like a terrible fire, with no respect for life, but a peaceful heart can extinguish the fire and help peace grow.
We will become audacious not by ourselves, but by walking together and following Christ, our peace, the one who entrusts us his peace, tasking us to live it and donate it to our fellow travellers. Who is audacious? The humble peacemaker, he or she who sows peace amidst division, ignorance and violence. He or she who does not give up to war and washes the feet of the unloved, the unappealing, , of those who are wounded by evil. Without asking for anything in exchange, only driven by the compassion that Jesus has for us, and requires us to have for all people. May the God of peace fill us with his Spirit of love, may he free us from fear and mediocrity, so that in our humble love people can recognize the peace God envisages for all people.
Amen.