Dominican Leo Edgar as Brother Leo gave us the first of two Advent talks on November 30th, and he returned ordained as Father Leo for the second talk on December 14th.
Christ came into a world of violence with a message of peace – God’s peace – for the world. In his first talk Fr. Leo looked from the very violence of creation itself – the ‘big bang’ to the slaying of Abel, the drowning of Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, and the many warnings of death, annihilation and vengeance if the laws of God were not obeyed. Forbidding as they are, these Old Testament accounts of wars and destruction set in the context of human development pale in contrast to the terrible violence of the death of Christ perpetrated by mankind on their own God, and the ongoing divisions between faiths, societies and nations which even today continue to lead to wars, bloodshed and death.
At a recent Provincial Chapter the Dominicans themselves recognised that one aspect of our (British) culture that impedes their mission is that, ‘People can be suspicious of religion in general, seeing it as a cause of conflict at all levels of human existence’. Jesus said ‘ Do you think I have come to bring peace to the earth? No I tell you but rather division’. This presents us with a paradox when He also says’ I leave you peace, my peace I give you. What then is this peace of God?
In his second talk Fr. Leo went on to explore human aspirations for peace and contrast this with the Divine Peace which Christ gives. Not unnaturally, many people in different parts of the world, like the Jews of Christ’s time, are looking for deliverance from persecution, from military occupation, oppression, exploitation, and discrimination. We speak of peace as the absence of strife – of divisions between individuals and communities. Many recognise that human peace is not only found in the absence of tension – but in the presence of justice. God’s peace however transcends even this ideal, for at its heart is forgiveness, – forgiveness, love and mercy.
Quoting Rowan Williams, Fr. Leo said ‘The actual substance of our relationship with eternal truth and love is bound up with how we manage the proximity of our human neighbours’. Cain asked ‘Am I my brother’s keeper’. In Law, Love and Language Herbert McCabe reminds us that, … ‘the world is held together not only by love but by fear, and it is part of the heritage we have somehow to transcend if we are to achieve real human unity’. The clear answer to Cain’s question is ‘Yes!’
It is a challenge to all churches, to preachers and teachers, to people of all religious persuasions and none that should be firmly grasped. St Paul sums it up. ‘Serve one another rather in works of love, since the whole of the Law is summarised in a single command: love your neighbour as yourself’. Christ’s message of peace is the joy we find in the Gospel – the promise of Divine Peace in the Kingdom of God. Our human aspirations for peace on earth are not wrong, but the awkward conclusion is that they fall short if it is no more than lip service when we pray, ‘Thy Kingdom Come’.
Our sincere thanks to Father Leo for coming to us, and for such thought provoking themes.
David Peacock