Those disturbing the peace for the people of Jesus’ time were mostly the rulers. The rulers, both the local rulers and the occupying Roman rulers with whom they colluded, lived by military values. it meant the rulers waged war upon the people with capricious decisions, financial burdens, and punitive unto violent behaviors. Those restoring the peace for people included Jesus: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives peace do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be disturbed.” The rulers who were disturbing the peace liked to claim they brought peace but it was a disturbing peace – it was the world’s peace that Jesus distinguished from his own creative peace. Rome’s world peace was called Pax Romana but it referred to its incessant military invasions and occupations. It was indeed a disturbing peace, in truth it was constant war, upon all people. It was devised as such by Augustus Caesar who described Rome’s peace as: “the situation that existed when all opponents had been beaten down and lost the ability to resist.”
Resistance is a very tempting reaction to Caesar’s very disturbing peace but resistance too is of Caesar. It’s like a ship’s captain caught in a storm who drops anchor along a rocky coast to fight it. Putting our energy into that fight in that setting will only keep us ensnared in Caesar’s disturbing peace, reduced to reacting against it. We will fight in endless wars in which we will be battered, buffeted, and broken. We will be beaten down, personally and socially; disturbed of heart, mind, and community. Thus, it is not the mission of peacemakers to enlist recruits to fight storms; it’s our mission to gather people into communities that peacefully calm them. Jesus did not resist Caesar types – he engaged with Caesar types. He did so calmly with empowered people and witnessed to his very different and genuinely peaceful way. As such Jesus was always disturbing Caesar’s peace. Jesus did this by not setting out to beat opponents down in return. He instead did his best to lift them up. It was the same lifting up he did with commoners by creating within and among them the powerfully peaceful Community of God. A peaceful community will always disturb Caesar’s very disturbing peace.
One such Spirit filled commoner was Ammon Hennacy (1893-1970). Ammon described himself as a person who “does not depend upon bullets or ballots to achieve his ideal; he achieves his ideal daily by … facing a decadent, confused, and dying world” with Christian Anarchy (to be Christ-like” and to “volunteer for good”). Ammon’s witness took shape in Catholic Worker houses. He spent his life, labor, and resources in soup kitchens and homeless shelters. As he went about co-creating the peaceful Community of God he was disturbing the peace of Caesar. He was therefore periodically arrested. The arrests varied – for not paying federal income tax because it is used for war or for not cooperating with defense drills that taught people that to duck and cover was a survival technique in nuclear war. When Ammon was hauled before the rulers of his age, the usual charge set against him was disturbing the peace. His usual response was: “I’m not disturbing the peace. I’m disturbing the war.”
Prayer: “Let nothing disturb you. Let nothing frighten you.” “Christ has no body now on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which Christ is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which Christ is to bless all the people.” (Teresa of Avila)
Question: What can I do to share Christ’s peace and disturb Caesar’s?
May 1, 2016 Gospel John 14:23-39 Sixth Sunday of Easter