Attitude change from violence to peace

The first Monday in our return to Ordinary Time is marked in the Roman Catholic Lectionary by texts which encourage us to continue to reflect on the gathering yesterday of Israeli President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to pray for peace with Pope Francis at the Vatican. The passage from the Book of Kings tells of the protection of Elijah by God during the drought which he calls upon the people of King Ahab as a response to the worship of false fertility gods. Friar Jude Winkler notes how God uses Nature to support the message of Elijah and to provide false fertility to the people who worship baal. The CBC program Tapestry explored Kevin Miller's documentary, Hellbound?, which asks whether Christians should be rethinking eternal damnation. Miller makes the point that our theology of hell has contributed to our attitude that violence is the ultimate way to solve problems in our world. The rejection of violence as an option is cited by Jan Schnack as being part of our “us” versus “them” mentality which is contrary to the challenge of the Gospel today where Matthew presents the Beatitudes as a bulls-eye which in Jewish thinking, as noted by Friar Jude, sets up an invitation from God to continuously strive toward goals which are achieved through the grace of God and and our “yes” to a change of heart toward the attitudes of selflessness, humility and peacemaking. The words of Pope Francis in the Joy of the Gospel encourage us to approach conflict in a different way by seeing others in their deepest dignity. The embrace of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders after prayer in the garden of the Vatican yesterday is a step toward that blessing of unity as children of God promised by Jesus to those who seek peace.