Today is the International Day of Peace

Since 1981 the International Day of Peace has provided an opportunity for individuals, organizations and nations to create practical acts of Peace on a shared date. Tonight Pax Christi Summit along with NJ Peace Action, the Summit Interfaith Coalition for Peace and the Peace Alliance will be sponsoring a vigil on the Village Green in Summit at 6:30 pm.

For all of those who will not be able to join us here is a passage for reflection from Archbishop Oscar Romero who was martyred in El Salvador in 1980:

It helps now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us. No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection, no pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capability.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the lord's grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

Amen.

May peace fill your heart, today and always.