Be Gentle

Yesterday I wrote to you about being determined to fight evil. Today, we see how to accomplish the victory. Ever since the Cain murdered Abel, humanity has dealt with violence and death. Kingdoms have risen up against kingdoms and brothers continue to fight brothers. People even try to war against God. This was not the original plan when God created us in the Garden. He created us to live at peace with each other and Him. The Great Fast just around the corner is our chance to shift the focus from war to peace.

As we hear in today’s reading from the Prophecy of Zechariah below, God has always promised to save us from one another and from death. What good will it be for us to fast, even if only from meat, if we are at war with each other? “For there will be sowing of peace,” says the Prophet, and we are the one who will prepare the soil with our fast. How does fasting lead to peace?

As Saint John Chrysostom teaches, when we fast, we learn to not want. If we are honest with ourselves, all violence and war is the result of wanting something we don’t possess. Nations want resources and power they do not control. Criminals want money and objects they don’t have. If we can learn to not want, we will no longer have need for violence. Even intrapersonal relationships can become emotionally violent because of wants, especially when dealing with power and control. Take a moment and read today’s reading below.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; and I will bring them to dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and they shall be my people and I will be their God, in faithfulness and in righteousness.” Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Let your hands be strong, you who in these days have been hearing these words from the mouth of the prophets, since the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid, that the temple might be built. For before those days there was no wage for man or any wage for beast, neither was there any safety from the foe for him who went out or came in; for I set every man against his fellow. But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as in the former days, says the Lord of hosts. For there shall be a sowing of peace; the vine shall yield its fruit, and the ground shall give its increase, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things. And as you have been a byword of cursing among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you and you shall be a blessing. Fear not, but let your hands be strong.” For thus says the Lord of hosts: “As I purposed to do evil to you, when your fathers provoked me to wrath, and I did not relent, says the Lord of hosts, so again have I purposed in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah; fear not. These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the Lord.” – Zechariah 8.7-17

When our life becomes a symbol of Jerusalem (The City of Peace) then others will come looking for peace. When we stop devising evil in our hearts against one another, others will find peace. When we speak truth to the world and make for peace, God will be honored by those seeking Him. There will always be those who do not desire to be with God. That cannot stop us from being a people of peace and truth. Our job is to be gentle with all who we encounter, especially during the Great Fast when our hearts are supposed to be focused on God.