The Perspective of Justice

At the Service of Peace

In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends his disciples out in pairs, and he tells them to bring nothing with them. They are to carry the message that the kingdom of God is at hand, but they must trust in God’s care.

For it is God whose “right hand is filled with justice,” it is God who will “free us from sin,” and it is God who will “spread prosperity over [the world] like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing torrent.”

The disciples of Jesus are sent to call others to “come and see the works of God, his tremendous deeds among men.”

They know that the Lord’s power shall be “known to his servants through their efforts,” and they exclaim with Paul: “May I never boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!”

We Christians are called to go out into the world with a message of love, justice, forgiveness, and peace. We are to work for the coming of the kingdom. But our hope is in the Lord, and our faith tells us that the salvation of the world is a gift from God. “Blessed is he who hopes in God.”

Because peace, like the kingdom of God itself, is both a divine gift and a human work, the Church should continually pray for the gift and share in the work. We are called to be a Church at the service of peace, precisely because peace is one manifestation of God’s word and work in our midst.

U.S. Bishops, The Challenge of Peace, 1983: 23

Gerald Darring

**From Saint Louis University