MUTUAL LOVE SERIES – “If Possible…Peace…” (08/22/2025)

For the past nine days, we have focused on specific lines of Paul’s list of duties of Christians in chapter 12 (verses 9-21) of his letter to the Romans. Today, as the final blog in this series, I’d like for us to consider his exhortation “If possible, on your part, live at peace with all” (Rom. 12:18). Paul calls us, as did Christ, to seek reconciliation and unity whenever possible. He called us to live our best and to seek the high road whenever we could

Paul calls us as disciples to “live at peace with all.” But what does that mean? What is peace?

When I am looking for ways to explain our beliefs as Christians, I often look at the writing of Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) because I’ve found he addresses the most profound and deep spiritual questions in words we ordinary folks can understand. He said peace is both of a gift of the LORD and a fruit of our human effort.  He wrote that it is what we experience “with God through a life lived according to His will.” He also recognized that it can be an interior peace with ourselves or an exterior peace with one another and even with all of creation. The one line I remember most from him is, “Peace is the supreme good to ask as a gift from God and, at the same time, that which is to be built with our every effort.”[1]

His statement tells us that it is a gift from the LORD but that we can either open it and savor it or ignore it and choose to live as if it weren’t given. Peace, in my opinion, is what we experience when we open ourselves to all the LORD offers us and to all the LORD has woven within us, the likeness of Him whom we claim as our Father.

I think of one of my favorite blessings in Scripture, the Priestly Blessing given to Moses by the LORD in Number 6:24-26: “The Lord bless you and keep you: the Lord let His face to shine upon you: the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace.”  Whenever I read it, I realize that we are being told that we are to unwrap the LORD’s love slowly and savor every element of it: first that the LORD blesses us by remaining with us; second that the LORD looks upon us and looks after us; third that the LORD’s love showered upon us triggers within us recognition and the response of mutual love which opens that fount of peace. Peace is existence as a whole being which is only possible when we are aware of the LORD’s loving power and presence and when we reciprocate.

And that love and peace which we find and hold in our relationship with our LORD is meant to be lived and shared with those around us, with one another. That’s what Paul means by  “on your part.” We are called to take personal responsibility for cultivating through our efforts peace with one another. We are called to be “peacemakers” by Christ in His Sermon on the Mount. But that requires much on our part; it requires humility and a heart that desires unity and seeks reconciliation when that unity is disturbed. How hard are we working daily to bring the peace we find in our relationship with our LORD to our relationships with others?

Paul recognizes as he exhorts us to live as Christians and to love as Christians that we do not live in a perfect world. Paul recognizes that there are times we cannot be at peace because of perverse or irrational resistance. The LORD calls us to do all we can for peace, but the LORD recognizes, and Paul affirms, that it is not always possible. While we are called to be peacemakers, we are also called to live the LORD’s love and we cannot acquiesce to hate just because it is powerful.

As we go forward, continuing our spiritual journeys in the physical world, let us do so fully engaged, full of hope because of our trust in our LORD and His promises, but also with eyes wide open. Let us seek to be peacemakers daily on our own part. And when it isn’t possible, let us turn to Him in whom all things are possible for help. Let us remember, “If possible, on your part, live at peace with all”

Until tomorrow, let us all love well.

[1] Benedict XVI, “The Peace That Is God’s Gift”, January 1, 2013 homily.