My friends, today I would like to speak about “peace” –personal peace, national peace, and world peace.  This topic of peace is one that I think a great deal about because on many levels, in our world, there seems to be so little of it.  And additionally, I am inclined to do so because today’s Scriptures speak either directly, or indirectly to the issue of peace. 

   The prophet Zechariah says very directly, “The warrior’s bow will be banished, and peace will be proclaimed to the nations.”  Paul, in his letter to the Romans speaks more indirectly about the goodness of peace and searching for this alternative to personal and worldly problems experienced in our lives: “You are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you.” 

   We as humans are capable of great good, but equally, of great evil.  The daily news lets us know this to be true.  I personally crave stories that tell of the goodness of us humans as opposed to the failures within humankind to meet that bar of goodness.  CBS news correspondent, Steve Hartman, in his “On the Road” segments, each Friday night, never fails in finding and producing good, human stories. 

   Several years ago, we had the opportunity of seeing a one-person play, entitled, An Iliad, through the Great River Shakespeare Festival (GRSF).  The play was a take-off on Homer’s, The Iliad and viewers were confronted with humankind’s propensity to make war, instead of peace.  Clearly, when one thinks about it, making “war” is the easier solution to any conflict. Making peace will always be the harder action because it calls for restraint, listening –being willing to hear another side –basically, calling forth the best in us. 

   Now I, like you, struggle with the hard work that making peace calls for and at times, tend to think that it can’t be done.  At times like this, Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel today are good to reflect on: “Come to me, all you who labor and find life hard, and I will refresh you.”  In other words, take the burden of following me—being true to the way of life that I have given you, upon your shoulders, learn from me, my gentleness, my humility—for that is how it must be done—not through angry words, or the violence of war. 

   When it comes to “making peace,” big enough to cover our war-torn world, most of us realize that the job is bigger than any one person can handle.  But, one person, added to another person, to another, can do great things.  That is why I love the work of Steve Hartman, who routinely shows us examples of some-one-person, doing something wonderfully good, and just like those who do evil in this world, will find followers, those who do, not only good, but good beyond measure seemingly, will find followers too.  World peace does indeed start small, in individual cases, and grows from there. 

   It is also good for us to remember that we are truly capable of great goodness, if we live more so, in the Spirit, as opposed to the body.  I love the person who originally said, “We are spiritual beings here, having a human experience.”  In other words, we came into existence with “original” goodness, not “sin,” as Matthew Fox has said so well.  That kind of shoots the whole theology of redemption, doesn’t it?! We aren’t here, in our humanity to become more spiritual—we are of God already, attempting through our humanity to be true, ultimately to God’s Spirit already within us!

   So, as An Iliad stated, since B.C.E. times to the present, there have been more than 100 wars. If that solution was what was needed, our world should be without war and conflict today! Right?

   It seems to me, when we truly think about it, even if we can come up with a justifiable reason, this decision to go to war is to have failed in our humanity to be our very best.  War should only come about as truly the last thing we try.  Sending our young men and women to fight these endless wars seems to me to be an insane action; unworthy of a God who has first loved us so much and trusted us to care for others in like manner.

   These are tough times my friends, when every week it seems, sometimes even every day, in our country, we must continually hear of mass shootings because we don’t, as a country, have the “intestinal fortitude,” as my friend, Paul Nelson used to say, or even the wisdom of children, as Matthew speaks of today, to do the right thing—to make it impossible to easily pick up a weapon to express one’s anger, hurt, whatever it might be, on our unsuspecting sisters and brothers in our world. We might well consider directing the millions used today to prop up the National Rifle Association, towards cleaning up the arsenals that litter our towns and cities and truly assist those needing psychological and emotional help so as to live more constructive lives. 

   Our God truly calls us to so much more goodness than our country and world is displaying today. And even though it may seem an impossible task, I would challenge each of us, this week, to make our world better by writing or calling someone in power to demand a world that is safer, freer from evil and violence than it is today.  Let’s demand a world that is more equal and fair for all; being unable to truly be happy with all we have, when so many have not even the basics.  Let’s advocate for goodness, for becoming our best selves—for everyone.  Jesus merely got this started, and when he left us physically, in time, he said that we would do greater things than he did.  Amen? Amen!

   My friends, I would like to begin by telling you about my week and some of the issues that I was presented with.  My purpose in doing this, as always, is to bring these events and issues to my preparation of opening up the weekly Scriptures for us to reflect on.  In my mind, if we don’t unite the two, the issues and events of our days, with the words of Scripture, we have kind of missed the point of trying to live out our Christian lives. 

   Okay, the events and issues of my week:

• The culmination of a couple of weeks of working in our yard, was to get all the first weeding of my flower patches done—a task I usually, in most years, have done well before now.  But as you know, with knee repair, I haven’t had the flexibility to “meet the weeds” at their level until now.  Now, I might have been able to let it go this year, with good reason, except for an upcoming visit from the  two bishops of my Midwest Region of Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) —one retired, and one, new.  Such a visit doesn’t happen that often, so I wanted the yard and house to show its “best face,” so that the visit would be as good as possible, which it seems to have been. 
• The next significant event of this week happened the next day in Rochester with my Franciscan Life Group, (FLG) made up of Sisters and Lay Cojourners at Assisi Heights. It was a wonderful time of sharing—in person, and outdoors, for the 1^st time in a while.  We shared the ups and downs of our lives, prayer for the needs and concerns of each other, differing religious and theological concerns within our Church Universal, and of course, a sharing of physical food, lovingly prepared by each, for each other.

• Then, there were the concerns for the wider Church and world that came into my life and yours this past week, beginning with: A unanimous vote by the United Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) to deny gender-affirming medical treatment to transgender youth.
• The US Supreme Court made three negative decisions this past week—1^st, against affirmative action in college admissions, of which Michelle Obama had this to say: “So often, we just accept that money, power and privilege are perfectly justifiable forms of affirmative action, while kids growing up like I did are expected to compete when the ground is anything but level.”   The 2^nd decision was against LGBTQ+ individuals when agreeing that a business owner does not have to serve individuals whose life-styles she doesn’t agree with—a decision that a national commentator for the Washington Post, Jonathan Capehart labeled as “poisonous” to our nation. Finally, there was President Biden’s plan to assist Americans with college debt, which they voted down.  Interesting that the six majority judges claim to be, “Catholic.”
• In addition, this past week, amid the 100+ degree heat wave in southern states, Texas governor, Greg Abbott ruled that no water breaks would be allowed for construction workers. 

   Now, you might be wondering what all these issues have to do with today’s Scriptures—in a few words, each is about, first, being the “Body and Blood of Christ” and “serving” that Body of Christ.  And each of today’s readings is about these two most important actions.  Let me explain.

   The 1^st reading from 2 Kings shows the prophet, Elisa, giving the Shunammite woman the “best” of gifts in her culture—a child.  We might think too about how we might give our best to others.  Paul, in his reading to the Romans, tells them that their baptisms are about making them “new.”  In other words, we Christians can’t simply respond as the “status quo”—more is expected of the “Body of Christ.” And the gospel from Matthew brings this notion home in Jesus’ words about family.  Even as he would have realized that “family” is everything to the Israelites, he says that “doing what is right” is ultimately, more important!

   To make this clear, we only need think about all the physical, sexual, and emotional/spiritual abuse done in our Church by clergy and covered up for so long because those doing the cover-up thought that “protecting the Church” –however one describes that—was more important than protecting vulnerable children. 

   Even though this heinous crime has been brought more into the light of day, it still continues because our Church, in its hierarchy has never fully taken responsibility for its failure to truly love as Jesus did and does. If it had, organizations like (SNAP) Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests would have been able to conclude their work long ago; but such is not the case. 

   Living “a new life” as baptized believers in Christ, spoken about today by Paul to the Romans, is truly about “choosing” to live that life.  Each day, every day, my friends, we have to make the personal choice of doing the most loving thing. 

   Granted, living our Catholic/Christian life through “high theater” as was depicted in the Eucharistic Congress held recently in Mankato, MN might be “comforting” on a spiritual level, and not wrong in itself, but to be designing a form of “evangelization” about the human body and blood of Jesus on the altar, uplifting this drama, as seems to be the case as one looks at the work of the USCCB, with no connection to the “real presence” of Jesus in our world, is simply to again, have missed the point of it all. 

   Jesus’ simply never intended that we would worship his body and blood in human form and stay there at the altar, but more so, that in consuming the elements of bread and wine, his “real presence,” into our bodies, we would become that “body” that “blood” and share it in all the places of our world, in all the suffering and pain we find, realizing that here and now, we have found his body, his blood—his presence and make a difference. 

   I am personally saddened to see our own diocesan bishop in conjunction with so many other so-called “leaders” in our country, choosing the low road, which is about them and their own personal comfort instead of the welfare of all the People of God!

   Think, if you will, how wonderful it might be if the highlight of their National Eucharistic Congress next year was that they would, each bishop, from each diocese show that they truly understand the blessedness of the presence of our brother Jesus in our midst, in his body and blood, by asking forgiveness of all who have suffered so terribly due to their arrogance and abuse of their power—over children, women, LGBTQ+ folks and so on.  Think how it would be if they could truly involve all the voices—I assure you, that would be the best way ever of bringing more people back into Church involvement.  Amen? Amen!