Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. —Matthew 5:9
If you have been blessed with children, you may have on occasion looked at their physical features, noted their talents, observed their personalities and concluded that this or that child looks like, resembles, acts like, etc. one or another of its parents or grandparents. Children through nature and nurture are reflections of their parents. This is something that many likely heard while growing up. That they looked like or had the personality of their mom or dad, grandmother or grandfather.
When Philip says to Jesus, “Show us the Father” Jesus responds by saying “If you have seen me you have seen the Father.” Such it is between a parent and a child. While I appreciate there is a difference between the relationship of Jesus to his father and us to our parents, the general principle holds: children are a reflection of their parents. In Jesus, we see that the Father is compassionate, merciful, patient, loving, healing, just and righteous, and forbearing. We see that the Father cares for the oppressed, the outcast, the sick, the poor, the orphan and the widow. If you want to know what God our Father is like, look at what Jesus did.
In his great sermon on the mount, Jesus makes use of this relationship between parent and child to remind us of in whose image we are made and therefore whose image we should reflect. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” It is the seventh of his statements on blessedness. Matthew is too thoughtful and too careful, for this to be random or a coincidence. Many will recognize that seven is a number representing perfection, completeness, and wholeness. Recall the seven days of creation and rest from Genesis. This seventh statement is about completeness and wholeness. It is about the peace that is the fruit of being complete and whole in our identity as children of God when we rest in and live out that identity.
Peacemakers - those who actively seek peace within and without - are those who will find and know what it means to be at peace with themselves and at peace with others. To be at peace and to be a source of peace, is to embrace and to enact the character of God that is already in you as a child of God. The name is “peace-makers” meaning that is an action and a way of being. Practice peace and you will know peace. Practice peace and you will find your true self. Practice peace and you will find yourself in union with the God of peace.
When Jesus says “Blessed are the peacemakers” he is not merely saying that they are blessed because others will know they are children of God, as if the blessing is that of a good reputation, but more so that in their doing of peacemaking they will find for themselves the blessedness that comes from being true to one’s inheritance as a child of the God of peace. And the place to start toward peace is with yourself, child of God. You cannot make the peace with others that you first do not have for yourself.
What are the things you carry within you that keep you from having peace? Judging voices and selfcriticism? Bitterness and resentment toward another? Fear, guilt, shame? Daily quiet time devoted to sitting in the presence of God to be reminded of your true self can bring you the peace you need. Make your daily sacrifice an offering of those things that burden you and may God receive them with the love of a Father for a child and fill in those spaces in your spirit with the blessedness of peace.
Shalom to you, child of God,
Fr. Bill+