Peace - it's complicated

I've been giving peace some thought recently, especially in the light of Jesus assurance, "Peace I bequeath you, my own peace I give you" from today's gospel reading (John 14:27-31). We can talk about peace at different levels - personal, relational, institutional, national and global. Some of the most visited apps these days are those that deal with personal stress and anxiety. They purportedly help people find peace or calm. It seems we live in a much more stressful world than in the past. Or is that we don't interact with others as much as we did in the past? Perhaps that's why people find it difficult to maintain healthy relationships whereby they can work through inevitable tensions and misunderstandings. Well, we know about the difficulties of finding and maintaining peace within our homes, our schools, our workplaces, church and society. Perhaps we sometimes fail to bear in mind that the possibility of peace comes from first honestly looking at the different dimensions of our lives. At the economic level, here in Aotearoa we have recently discovered that the wealthiest 300 families in our country pay half the amount of taxes the rest of us pay. Such inequality does not augur well for peace. On another level, political parties are loosing the ability to work together. Party interests take precedence over national concerns. Prejudices are making us enemies of one another. Racism militates against the ability to see the beauty in the diversity of cultures and languages. Now one of our leaders wants to build 500 more beds for our prisons as a way of dealing with increasing youth crime. Good chance that this will help young people to grow into peace-loving citizens. And I haven't even begun to look at the global level where we see the impact of climate change and so many wars being fought around the world. Recently President Biden brought computer engineers and entrepreneurs to the White House to discuss the perilous future of A.I. We may soon find ourselves fighting against machines and robots. I think we need to share more in Pope Francis' prayer that we work together to create a global culture of peace. Can we take hold of Jesus plea, "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid"? This is the challenge, to find that deep personal calm that enables us to look honestly at the complex array of social and political issues and to find ways, however small, to become effective instruments of peace, a peace the world cannot give but a peace the world is so desperately in need of.