Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me

Assisi was more or less shut down for most of the day as the annual peace march was walked between Perugia and Assisi.

Our pilgrims had a sleep in and a later start before Mass at the Church of St Margaret of Antioch which was built in the 1200s...

Readings for Mass 

2 Kings 5:14-17

Naaman the leper went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, as Elisha had told him to do. And his flesh became clean once more like the flesh of a little child.

Returning to Elisha with his whole escort, he went in and stood before him. ‘Now I know’ he said ‘that there is no God in all the earth except in Israel. Now, please, accept a present from your servant.’

But Elisha replied, ‘As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will accept nothing.’ Naaman pressed him to accept, but he refused.

Then Naaman said, ‘Since your answer is “No,” allow your servant to be given as much earth as two mules may carry, because your servant will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any god except the Lord.’

Sing a new song to the Lord
for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm
have brought salvation.

The Lord has made known his salvation;
has shown his justice to the nations.
He has remembered his truth and love
for the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord, all the earth,
ring out your joy.

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Remember the Good News that I carry, ‘Jesus Christ risen from the dead, sprung from the race of David’; it is on account of this that I have my own hardships to bear, even to being chained like a criminal – but they cannot chain up God’s news. So I bear it all for the sake of those who are chosen, so that in the end they may have the salvation that is in Christ Jesus and the eternal glory that comes with it.

Here is a saying that you can rely on:

If we have died with him, then we shall live with him.
If we hold firm, then we shall reign with him.
If we disown him, then he will disown us.
We may be unfaithful, but he is always faithful,
for he cannot disown his own self.

Luke 17:11-19

On the way to Jerusalem Jesus travelled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he entered one of the villages, ten lepers came to meet him. They stood some way off and called to him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ When he saw them he said, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ 

Now as they were going away they were cleansed. Finding himself cured, one of them turned back praising God at the top of his voice and threw himself at the feet of Jesus and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. This made Jesus say, ‘Were not all ten made clean? The other nine, where are they? It seems that no one has come back to give praise to God, except this foreigner.’ And he said to the man, ‘Stand up and go on your way. Your faith has saved you.’

Reflection

It was bad enough in Jesus' time getting leprosy form a health point of view... but a worse thing was that lepers were separated from the families - husbands and wives stripped from each other, parents not being allowed to hold their children, loss of livelihood and home, and living with a group of strangers, outside the town - being reduced to calling out to people from a distance "unclean, unclean." To be a leper was not just to be sick, it was to be an outcast.

And so it was these ten outcasts stood some way off and called to him, ‘Jesus! Master! Take pity on us.’ 

And he heard them, and gave them something incredibly simple to do, 'Go and show yourselves to the priests' - and then walked on... 

There is another account of Jesus and a leper, the bold leper who didn't keep his distance and who came to Jesus and pleaded on his knees: 'If you want to' he said 'you can cure me.'  Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him.  'Of course I want to!' he said.  'Be cured!' By touching him who was unclean Jesus too was considered a leper, an outcast and unclean. Nonetheless in this act of healing Jesus cured him of his leprosy and his estrangement to family and community. He who as good as death and again been given life.

And that was what happened to the ten as they went to the priests they were cleansed. But only one came back full of praise, for not only the healing of the leprosy but being restored to life with family and community.

This is the work of Jesus... they one who hears the cries of those who call out to him, especially the outcast, and who longs to restore them to the fullness of life.

This is what the cross is about - Look at Jesus on the crucifix... by hanging on the cross he is considered cursed but he gives us life for he stretches out his hands to all who suffer, who are outcasts and who are dead... and he offers us life.

So consider again the cross, not with the face of Jesus, but place on his figure the face of the outcasts of our world, society and communities, perhaps even those we crucify by our thoughts, words and actions... In this place of Assisi with the example of Francis but as we also saw in Teresa of Calcutta and Suzanne Aubert we are called to see in the face of the poor and the outcast the face of Christ.

But consider the cross again, not with the face of Jesus, nor with the face of the outcasts of our world, society and communities, but with our own face, for we who called Christians and called to be like the Christ with hands outstretched to the poor and outcast, the abandoned and lost.

The cross leads us to understand God and who we are called to be as we long for the restoral of all he outcasts of world along with ourselves, so that like the leper we may the Lord for all he has done for us as he restores us as his one Body in the great banquet of heaven.

Ten lepers separated from the community

By the time Mass was finished the marchers were filling the streets of Assisi...

Pope Francis' Prayer for Peace

Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!
We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts 
by our own powers and by the force of our arms. 
How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; 
how much blood has been shed; 
how many lives have been shattered; 
how many hopes have been buried… 
But our efforts have been in vain.
Now, Lord, come to our aid! 
Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace. 
Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: 
"Never again war!"; 
"With war everything is lost".
 
Instill in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.
Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, 
you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters. 
Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; 
enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister. 
Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens 
who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, 
our trepidation into confident trust, 
and our quarreling into forgiveness.
Keep alive within us the flame of hope, 
so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. 
In this way may peace triumph at last, 
and may the words "division", "hatred" and "war" be banished 
from the heart of every man and woman. 
Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. 
Renew our hearts and minds, 
so that the word which always brings us together will be "brother", 

and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!