Peace! Shalom! Shanti! (Mother's Day)

She called me a couple weeks ago and said, "This Mother's Day, please don't send me another card covered with flowers and filled with flattery. I appreciate your thinking of me, Get real! I did the best I could, but I was far from a perfect mom!" You remember. You were there!" So this year I got her a card with that old woman on it with the hairnet and the housedress. On the front it says, "Hours of excruciating labor, millions of diapers and countless sleepless nights. On the inside it says," And you get a card. (dot dot dot) Yeah, that sounds fair."

If God created only mothers with motherly qualities, the world would have been peaceful! Honestly all the anger, greed, wars, and other peace less activities in the past have been the language of men and mothers played very little role or no role in them. Honestly speaking, the role of a mother from Proverbs 31 to the present has undergone tremendous changes. We don’t see much of moms cook, arrange tables, do the dishes! Most of the marriages stood on the patience and peace-loving nature of women in the past. Is it a past memory only?

The tradition in India wants the women out of her parent’s house and be part of her husband’s family. She literally marries not just the husband but his family as well. She has to adapt to her new conditions and adjusts herself in all that she does and says. Almost all women face the mighty mother-in-law and dominating nature of the husband.

Peace is almost always a concept that is spoken in the realm of Justice. Not many think that peace is the quality of perfection. Jesus orders perfection – just as your heavenly father is perfect. How can anyone enjoy peace if we live and are chained in sin? Peace is certainly related to the moral standards that we set for ourselves. Just as our kids don’t listen to a single word we say – there is no peace in that family, we chose sin and darkness – result is NO PEACE!

We love to use or intend the word ‘peace’ in all our greetings and farewells. Peace was disturbed in the Christian communities because of unchristian ideas came into our church. The JRS council decides on Christian morals rooted on freedom. They were in search of peace. Jesus’ promise of peace is so essential that we practice it every day in the mass. This peace is given to us not to just feel better or feel superior, rather feel responsible. This peace makes us humble and service-minded that we are responsible towards our families and society.

Inner peace paves way to peace in society. The way to inner peace is honest love. Only love can bring us peace and that’s exactly what happened. Jesus brings peace to us, that is, Love brings us peace. Peace is always a language of love, morally sound and striving for perfection.