Pax Dei--Living in Peace 9

Ideals 

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"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out." Annelies Marie Frank, August 1944, The Diary of a Young Girl 

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Note: I just attended day one of Webster University's annual Humanitarian Conference in Geneva, with this year's theme being "Conflict Resolution." The tone and the content, as I have so often experienced in gatherings related to international affairs and human development, were primarily dark, discouraging, and devoid of optimism and solutions. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" was quoted more than once. Currently an estimated 1.5 billion people live in the 42 countries affected by wars and/or armed conflict, primarily intra-state (internal) fighting although many of these involving influences and participants from other countries. Against many odds, we must work towards and continue to hope that, as Anne Frank said, "peace and tranquility will return one day." 

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Pax Dei

And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.”….

 “You are worthy to take the scroll

    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”

Excerpts from Revelation chapter 5, NIV

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Note: There are different interpretations for the book of Revelation, ranging from it being an allegory about good and evil, a veiled description of the struggles of the first century church, a prophetic message of hope and warning, etc. One thing most Christian traditions will agree, is that the book reflects humanity’s desperate need of God’s help and that without Divine help all of our best efforts as humans for peace and tranquility will fail. The opening of the scroll in this passage, is understood by some as representing who has rightful access to the title deed to the earth/humanity and who can thus change the course of history and stop humanity’s misery.  If no one is worthy of the title deed then humanity is stuck, forever. No wonder John “wept and wept.” And no wonder the celestial assembly erupted in massive celebration, when the Lamb, Christ is praised for his worthiness based on his voluntary and substitutionary death on behalf of all peoples. An additional, central belief that is woven into this book is the return of Christ to the earth—the Blessed Hope described in the New Testament writing of Titus--without which the world will continue to self-destruct through corruption, exploitation, injustice, and evil. 

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Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, 

miserere nobis—dona nobis pacem.

Pax Dei—Living in Peace 5

Dona Nobis Pacem

Jerusalem, city of peace. “During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed twice, besieged 3 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times.”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem)

I am in Jerusalem. It is almost the start of Shabbat. I am heading from my friends' house in the Arab Quarters, through a security check point, towards the Western Wall. Sometimes referred to as the Wailing Wall, this unmistakable landmark is part of a retaining wall that still remains intact from the second temple--begun around 436 BC and destroyed 70 CE. It is a two-minute walk.

A chill is in the air and a sense of magical expectation fills my heart. The twilight is slowly descending and a crescent moon is slowly rising over the yellowish, limestone buildings. I put on a kippah (head covering) and make my way to the wall itself, passing hundreds who are praying, chanting, singing, swaying, repetitiously and rhythmically bowing, circling in fraternal groups, and/or clustering for discussions and teaching sessions. I touch the wall. I rest my forehead on it. I am transfixed to it, caught up in the social, spiritual, mystical revery around me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPqQO22Koj4

From my depths wells up a core yearning, a vocal plea to Adonai. A prayer of the Church throughout the centuries for humanity—a humanity composed of all peoples that like Jerusalem has been ‘destroyed, besieged, attacked, captured and recaptured.’ Over and over again my invocation earnestly flows into the ancient stone wall, passing through it effortlessly in order to resound across dimensions in saeculi. The intimate-transcendent Most High is listening:

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, 
miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, 
miserere nobis.

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, 
dona nobis pacem.

Perhaps 15 minutes have passed. I gently detach myself from the wall. Transitioning from the ethereal, I look upward. And the peaceful, early-evening sky smiles at me. 

Pax Dei

On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare
    a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—
    the best of meats and the finest of wines.
 On this mountain he will destroy
    the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;

    he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
    from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
    from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.

 In that day they will say,

“Surely this is our God;
    we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
    let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”

Isaiah 25: 6-9 NIV

Member Care and the Body of Christ

Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi

miserere nobis.

We are looking at "wounds" in the Body of Christ. We are relating specific paintings of Christ's "passion" from El Prado Museum in Madrid, to the mission/member care world. The level of health/dysfunction (wounds) in our own communities will be reproduced in the communities that we seek to strengthen and form.

The painting below, The Descent from the Cross, was done around 1435 by the Flemish artist Rogier van der Weyden. Who among us also has the moral courage to request and to hold and to care for the broken Body?

Reflection and Discussion
Lamb of God you take away the sin of the world, have mercy on us.
Is there something within your sphere of influence that needs justice and mercy? Mercy with justice brings healing--for our communities and those we seek to support/form.
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We will not prosper if we cover a transgression.
But if we confess and forsake our transgressions, we will find mercy.
Proverbs 28:13