Dear Saints in Santa Fe and other far-off places:

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ, who taught “blessed are the peacemakers.”

I want you to join me in the work of peacemaking in 2023.  Get together, talk it over, form a group, be part of movement, do something small, consider something big, make a difference, if not for the world, then for you.  And me.  And our community.  Will you?

Now if you haven’t yet scrolled to something else then allow me to make your deliberation a bit easier.  I have already listed your objections (but you can still come up with your own!).

It’s hopeless.  Yes, it is.  Howard Zinn, the historian who wrote A People’s History of the United States, agrees with you.  Shortly before he died, he said with tears in his eyes that all the great movements for social change in our history—the Abolitionists, the Suffragettes, the Labor movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam movement—all believed they would never see the change they were working for, but they refused to give up.  They never stopped.  They knew it was the right thing to do.

But what can I do?  Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, shortly before he was assassinated, said, “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something!”

Hmm, but this nonviolence thing, it doesn’t really do anything. “People equate nonviolence with inaction, with not doing anything,” Cesar Chavez wrote, “and it’s not that all.  It’s exactly the opposite.”

OK, but I don’t know where to start.  “I recommend picking one cause that’s close to our hearts and getting involved in that struggle with all our heart and energy,” says long-time peace activist and former Sana Fe resident Father John Dear, whose quotes above come from his book The Nonviolent Life. 

I’m not sure I’ll like it or stay interested.   Fair enough.  You might not.  But personally, I can’t think of a better way to spend my time than with the likes of Gandhi, King, Mandela, Chavez, Zinn, Romero, Dear, Day, and Jesus, of course, as we come together and join the Global Movement for Justice, Peace, and Creation.

Still on the fence?  Then I invite you to attend an online seminar this Sunday, January 22, 2:30-4 pm called Jesus Christ, Peacemaker, A New Theology of Peace.  Follow this link.

Please let me know if you are interested in starting something here at church.  It’s never too late to start, and probably we’re right on time, to make this a year of peace.

Grace and peace,
Harry