CULTIVATING

PEACE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 7th Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Cultivating Peace.”

The last sentence in today’s first reading, just the last sentence, James 3:18, has lots of meat on the bone to chew on and to be challenged by: “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.”

TWO WORDS: CULTIVATING PEACE

“Cultivating peace” is the way the New American Bible - the translation we use for our liturgy - translates the last two words of today’s first reading. In Greek the two Greek words are, “POIUSIN EIRENEN”,

I was wondering why the translator translates “POUISIN” with the English word “cultivate”. I love Greek and I haven’t see the verb “POIEO” translated into English as “CULTIVATE”. I was taught it means “to make” or “to do” - “to construct” or “to produce”. So I was going to entitle my homily, “Making Peace” or “Producing Peace” or “Being A Peacemaker.”

LOOKING FURTHER

Then I noticed the first verb in that last sentence. It’s "SPEIRETAI". It’s from the Greek verb, “SPEIRO” “to sow seed”.

Reflecting on that, it seems to me that the author of James is making a neat parallel: sow the seeds of peace and you’ll produce peace.

I also wondered if the translator or translators were trying to get into the mind of James when they use that image of cultivating - because in that same sentence is the word “fruit” - “KARPOS” in Greek.

Once more the full sentence in our English text is, “And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace for those who cultivate peace.”

Next I noticed in the New American Bible - the Catholic Book Publishing Edition - there is a little footnote marker after the last word, “peace”. In the footnote I noticed “Matthew 5:9”. It’s the Beatitude, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

I was also wondering if this is where Pope Paul VI came up with his saying, his formula, “If you want peace, work for justice.” That was on thousands and thousands of banners in the early 1970’s.

I also noticed the word “righteousness” - “DIKAIOSUNE” in Greek - in this last sentence. It can be translated by the word “justice” or “making things right”.

So it hit me that today’s first reading might be part of the background of Pope Paul VI message. James talks about producing fruit by starting with the planting. Then to come up with fruit, one has to cultivate it.

The title of my homily is, “Cultivating Peace.”

A MESSAGE FOR TODAY

So a message for today: work on cultivating peace.

So a message for today: If we try to be peacemakers, we have to work at being just - to be filled with that grace and attitude.

TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE

I collect people descriptions. So here’s another one that I made up for today. “There are two kinds of people: peacemakers and trouble makers.”

I’ve seen and heard down through the years some people being described as grenade throwers. One of the gestures that I’ve seen some people described as goes like this. [GESTURE WITH YOUR HAND THAT YOU HAVE A GRENADE IN IT. THEN PULL THE PIN. THEN THROW OR LOB IT.]


I’m not making up  this description of their being two types of people out of thin air. I deconstructed today’s first reading from James and noticed that he describes two kinds of behavior.

First type: sometimes we can be ambitious, jealous, a boaster, disordered, earthly, unspiritual, demonic and unjust.

Second type: or we can also be pure, gentle, compliant, full of mercy, have good fruit within, being wise, constant, and sincere.

Each of us has to look in the today's text as in a mirror and ask this question: “Am I a peacemaker or am I a troublemaker.”

Once more it’s the basic Native American Story of the two dogs.

That was one of the teachings of the Wisdom Figures of the various native tribes here in this land.  Inside every person there are two dogs - the happy dog and the unhappy dog. From time to time they would fight. If you listen you can hear the fight going on in your stomach. Then a kid asks, “Which one wins?” And the Wisdom Teacher or a teacher says, “The one we feed.”

So if we want to be a growler and a grouch and a pain you know where, feed that angry dog - give that angry dog your attention.

If we want to be a nice lovable dog, feed that dog.

The title of my homily is, “Cultivating Peace.”

CARTOON IN AMERICA MAGAZINE

There was a “Without Guile” cartoon in America Magazine last October 31st. It shows two people in heaven - on clouds. A wife is standing behind her husband. Both are wearing halos. The husband is sitting there hands behind his neck talking to his wife. He’s looking at a TV. The caption on the bottom of the cartoon is, “It’s really nice up here, but I miss all the negative political ads.”

CONCLUSION

How to cultivate peace? Say the Peace Prayer of St. Francis every morning and then put it into practice its various good attributes.
How to cultivate trouble? Feed yourself with tons of negative stuff every day and then go out and spread those seeds of discord.

Your move.

Conclusion: Here is a litmus test. Just listen for a week to the groups you hang with. If your groups are filled with good stuff, then great. If your groups are filled with negative stuff, then realize likes attract.Run!