From the Principal
DECADE OF TRUTH
PEACE and LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR (especially those hardest to love)
At the commencement of this decade, it was declared that for all Monicans we were entering a Decade of Truth, six particular Kingdom Values that if lived out authentically in our lives would support and inspire us and proclaim the Word of God to the world.
This is the third in a series of three editions when the six Kingdom Values chosen to proclaim will be presented.
Peace is not difficult to define, and yet it is complex and diverse in interpretation and meaning. Peace in the Chambers Dictionary is defined as ‘the freedom from war’. It is also ‘freedom from noise, disturbance or disorder’. Again, peace is ‘freedom from mental agitation, serenity’, and we read instances of peace including:
Be at peace
Hold one’s peace
Keep the peace
Make peace with someone.
Jesus came to earth to be the Prince of Peace. His first greeting after the Resurrection began with the words, “Peace be with you’. Jesus’s message is fully one of peace, and His call to be peaceful has been the Christian message since the day He walked on earth.
Whether the peace is the absence of conflict or the calmness that comes from a mind and heart at peace, the result is positive and comforting. Whilst some nations choose war, the majority of peoples plea that peace reigns. Whilst some people are scatty and at ill at ease mentally, the vast majority of people make such efforts that will lead them to be at peace in their thoughts and actions. Whilst some individuals seem as if they prefer a good argument before a favor or hand shake, they are the clear minority.
Indeed, we must work to achieve and keep the peace. It demands prayer and perseverance at times to ignore a negative comment, stop from uttering a cruel insult, refrain from spiteful and unpleasant words. There is a range of words that are associated with peace: harmony, agreement, truce, reconciliation, tranquillity, composure are several of those words.
Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord’. ‘Peace be with you – and also with you’. Peace is a Kingdom Value for Monicans.
Love of Neighbour is the sixth Kingdom Value in this Monican Decade of Truth. The sting in the tail though for Monicans is the addition of the words, ‘especially those hardest to love’. Put simply, it is no great accomplishment to love a kind, hospitable, caring and socially acceptable neighbour. Indeed, we embrace and welcome their company.
Some neighbours though fall into the ‘hardest’ category and, golly, they take some effort to love. They might be socially unclean, hold values foreign to ours, unpleasant, consider us ‘the foe’, rude and crude. The Truth calls us to love them in a manner that avoids conflict at the very least.
How Monican was His response when the elders posed to Jesus the question, ‘Who is my neighbour?’ The answer was found in Jesus’s telling the parable about the Good Samaritan in Luke’s gospel. The neighbour was the unclean one, the injured one, the beaten human being, the rejected one. It was the Samaritan man who recognised in amongst all this human misery his neighbour, and the Samaritan went out of his way to care and protect the neighbour when others walked away.
We meet our neighbour in the house next door, in our school, at Church, in our local community centres. Jesus taught that we also meet our neighbour in the dying, the dirty and disgusting wretches, the vagabonds and villains, our enemies, those whom most people shun and detest. Hard to love but fundamental criteria for love of neighbour (especially those hardest to love).
Thus, we come to the final edition on the six Kingdom Values we are emphasising throughout the Monican Decade of Truth. Compassion and Forgiveness, Generosity and Humility, Peace and Love of Neighbour (especially those hardest to love). May God bless us as we strive to honor and celebrate Truth and live in the spirit and message of the gospels. God bless all Monicans.
Brian E. Hanley OAM
Principal