Many persons may view peace as simply the absence of war or turmoil or the absence of conflict.  However this is a very narrow way of viewing peace. “Peace is a value and a universal duty founded on a rational and moral order of society that has its roots in God himself, ‘the first source of being, the essential truth and the supreme good’.

Peace is not merely the absence of war, nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies.  Rather it is founded on a correct understanding of the human person and requires the establishment of an order based on justice and charity.”

What this means is that the promotion of peace must be understood as a duty that makes a demand on everyone. Peace will not happen on its own; each of us has a responsibility to do our bit in creating and preserving it.

We are therefore called to understand the order that God created and ensure that it is maintained based on justice. We must understand that we must preserve human dignity and promote human rights for example. As individuals we must be concerned about the effects of all our actions on others. Do our actions harm others? Do they infringe on other persons’ rights? Do we make others uncomfortable? Are we insensitive?

“Peace is the fruit of justice, (cf Is 32:17) understood in the broad sense as the respect for the equilibrium of every dimension of the human person. Peace is threatened when man is not given all that is due him as a human person, when his dignity is not respected and when civil life is not directed to the common good. The defence and promotion of human rights is essential for the building up of a peaceful society and the integral development of individuals, peoples and nations.”

Peace is also the fruit of love. “True and lasting peace is more a matter of love than of justice, because the function of justice is merely to do away with obstacles to peace: the injury done or the damage caused. Peace itself, however, is an act and results only from love”. If we love others we will think about how our actions affect them and that in itself will lead to just actions on our part.
 
“Peace is built up day after day in the pursuit of an order willed by God and can flourish only when all recognise that everyone is responsible for promoting it. To prevent conflicts and violence, it is absolutely necessary that peace begin to take root as a value rooted deep within the heart of every person.

 In this way it can spread to families and to the different associations within society until the whole of the political community is involved. In a climate permeated with harmony and respect for justice, an authentic culture of peace can grow and can even pervade the entire international community.

Peace is, consequently, the fruit of ‘that harmony structured into human society by its Divine Founder and which must be actualised by men as they aspire for ever greater justice’. 

Such an ideal of peace ‘cannot be obtained on earth unless the welfare of man is safeguarded and people freely and trustingly share with one another the riches of their minds and their talents’.”

Next week we look at the issue of Violence. 

Quotations in these articles are from the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, Persons interested in purchasing a copy of the Compendium can contact the Justice Desk, Archbishop’s House at 622-6680. Also on sale at the Justice Desk are the Take a Bite Social Justice Programme on DVD and the Responses to 101 Questions on Catholic Social Teaching.