Peacemaker

Miriam Wei Wei Lo is an Australia-based poet and author I’ve met recently through The Creative’s Workshop . She can say in a handful of words what I need a thousand to express. This week she wrote exactly twelve words on the subject of peace (I won’t publish those here without her permission) and set me thinking for several days.

Miriam’s words reminded of the time Mother Teresa obtained a ceasefire in Beirut, Lebanon to rescue 100 disabled orphans who had been abandoned by the orphanage staff, directly in the path of the bombs. Such a great divide, such tiny hands stretched out in prayer, by faith. When the great silence suddenly fell, as she said it would, she walked through the bombed-out streets and brought out those children with her own hands. The hands of a peacemaker, the hands of Christ on earth.

But there is something more to the story that grips my heart. When Mother Teresa arrived in the war-torn city, she talked to a priest and an officer who felt that the situation was too chaotic and volatile for her to get involved. She replied I feel that the Church must be present at this time. Because we are not into politics. This is why we need to be present.

Now I begin to reflect on what it means to be a peacemaker in my own severely divided country. Where does the real power lie?

Photo by Motoki Tonn on Unsplash