The Road to Peace

Gospel: Luke 19: 41-44

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, for they like so many fail to see the road to peace.  When we conceive of the kingdom of God in political, earthly terms we inevitably choose the wide road of violence and war.  When the kingdom of God is seen politically, we look at human beings as transactional agents who are either useful to my cause and side or useless and an enemy.  And unlike Jesus who saw enemies as people to be loved, we see them only as objects to be destroyed.  

But such a view always leads to our ruin, as it did for Jerusalem so it is for us.  For if other people can be seen in transactional objectivizing terms then so can we.  To debase other human beings is to debase ourselves as well.  This political path never leads to peace; it can only lead to endless conflict and war to our destruction.

The path of peace is the path of the cross, the path where we endure violence done against us and never wield it against another.  It is one where the kingdom of God is within us, unharmed and untouched by the violence done to the body, where the only one to be conquered is ourselves, and once that is achieved we have everlasting peace and union with God and others.  Let Christ not weep over us like he did for Jerusalem.