284. At times fundamentalist violence is unleashed in some groups, of whatever religion, by the rashness of their leaders.
From a speech early in his papal ministry:
Yet, “the commandment of peace is inscribed in the depths of the religious traditions that we represent… As religious leaders, we are called to be true ‘people of dialogue’, to cooperate in building peace not as intermediaries but as authentic mediators. Intermediaries seek to give everyone a discount, ultimately in order to gain something for themselves. The mediator, on the other hand, is one who retains nothing for himself, but rather spends himself generously until he is consumed, knowing that the only gain is peace. Each one of us is called to be an artisan of peace, by uniting and not dividing, by extinguishing hatred and not holding on to it, by opening paths of dialogue and not by constructing new walls”. [Address to the International Meeting for Peace organized by the Community of Sant’Egidio (30 September 2013): Insegnamenti I, 1 (2013), 301-302]
I like the image of peacemaker as artisan. The image is that of both a worker and a person accomplished in a craft–not much different from an artist. Peace, also, is often a hands-on thing. Peace is not made from afar. It takes a live human being to bridge the gap between persons on either side of a divide.
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Catholic Sensibility 