At Jesus command (Mat. 28:19) the early disciples went out and turned the world upside down. They were ordinary folk, like you and me. But ordinary folk with an extraordinary message and a transforming power. The Spirit was with them - the Spirit that moved at creation and still breathes in every breath of wind. That Spirit was around and within them. Isn't it within every man and woman, if only we knew it? Are we not all made in the image of God*, however badly we have marred that image. (Gen. 1:27) It's a new birth we need, not a new conception.
And the message they went out with was a message of peace. But it was no easy peace. They remembered the words of Jesus: "I have come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled." (Luke 12:49) And they remembered too his anguish when he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem: "You did not know those things that belonged to your peace." (Luke19:42) Peace was clearly not an easy option. If sought for itself it never seemed to come: "They say peace, peace, when there is no peace" (Jer. 8:11) Peace and justice were closely linked together. But so too were peace and obedience. The prophets of Israel had known that.
And in our own day so too did that man of the Spirit, Pope John XXiii. His motto was 'obedience and peace'. When he served as a papal ambassador after the war, Schumann who was to become French Premier said of him that he was the only man in Paris in whose company one felt a physical sensation of peace. And history has yet to record the full influence upon the world of that simple man of peace, Angello Roncalli.
Let me finish by quoting from a small magazine called 'Mustard Seed' that I used to edit. The title of my editorial, 'Obedience and Peace'**, was borrowed from that motto.
'The gospels tell us that Jesus used mustard seed to symbolise both faith (Luke. 17:6) and God's kingdom. (Mat. 13:31) For while conflict may be child of a moment, faith and peace are flowers that grow. Thus it is only as we say 'Yes' to God and continue to obey his will that faith can blossom in our lives to release the fragrance of God's peace in us and for our world.' May it be like that with you and me.
* I am no literalist. See my poem 'The Sentinel' in 'Poems of Youth and Age'
** See 'Obedience and Peace' part in this 'Behold the Man'
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Behold The Man*
EspiritualThis is mainly a five part idiosyncratic reflection on the life of Jesus of Nazareth; someone whom many people with little time for religion still find attractive. It is mostly from a talk I gave in 1988 while visiting a church in Pennsylvania. Plea...
