Today’s reflection in my LCWR book includes a quote from Nelson Mandela: "If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then your enemy becomes your partner."
I remember clearly the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison. I was a Senior in High School working as a checkout cashier at my local K-Mart. Back in the smoky break room the TV was on as usual with some inane fare. Suddenly they broke in with the news – Mandela was being released!!!. I was mesmerized. My coworkers wanted to change the channel, but I prevailed. I sat there well beyond my allotted break time, watching history happen. Watching freedom happen. Watching peacemaking happen.
I finally went back to work, a changed woman, only to realize that most of my coworkers didn’t know who Nelson Mandela was. They probably didn’t know what apartheid was for that matter.
The quote from Mandela is profound, especially considering all he went through. I’m feeling more and more called to be a peacemaker in my life. To work for peace in the world, church, and my own circle. And yet I’m the first to admit how far I fall from that ideal. I think petty thoughts. I grumble. I sometimes lash out or focus on the differences rather than build on the common ground.
But the desire is there. A line from the groovy sister’s Constitutions has been very present to me the last few weeks: "Our founding spirit calls us to further the work of peace. Responding to this call we experience our own need for continuing conversion to gospel values which engender peace."
Jesus calls us to continuing conversion. He knows we’re not perfect. "I did not come to call the righteous but sinners," he says in today’s gospel.
Those are my Sunday evening thoughts. Busy week ahead with plenty of opportunity to pratice peacemaking I'm sure. But for now it's time for bed.
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