NEW EVANGELIZATION NEEDS THE GOSPEL TRUTH -- AND A MOTHER'S DAY PAX CHRISTI

I am a member of Pax Christi USA because it means Peace of Christ, not war of Christ, and we as a church must follow this faith in its full gospel, no matter how difficult, in a violent war-dedicated society. We are given the call and grace to do this by the resurrected Jesus, who breaths on us, “Peace be with you.”

As we look forward as a church to a new evangelization of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the first step is to fully proclaim that Good News. Every person on the planet, no matter culture or background, churched or un-churched, must answer two primary questions—Is there a God? – And if there is a God, what does that creator and perfect being want me to do with my life? Christians have been blessed with the answer of Jesus.

If we believe Jesus is the Son of God, then it’s crucial to follow the advice of his human mother Mary, “Do whatever he tells you.” [Jn 2:5] The account of his life, death, and resurrection is truly Good News—there is life after death for those who trust in his way. He has shown us how to live and die, and live again. He never sanctioned taking another’s life as the way to salvation, but taught and did the opposite, giving his own life.

So there is a dilemma for those of us who want to evangelize others to follow the all-merciful all-loving nonviolent Jesus who loved even the enemy. What are we to do about our support of a “just war theory”—war which kills on a massive scale. How will they know we are Christian’s by our love? We reject a just abortion theory, but we maintain the justified violence of war. This is just a theory, and not an original dogma of our faith, yet it has caused immeasurable havoc and suffering.

Image by Tom Gauld of the Guardian

Who revealed to us the “just war theory”? It was not Christ, God’s only Son. Cicero, a B.C. orator and senator of the Roman Empire, was its first formulator. Be willing to kill for the kingdom, take up your sword—give this a framework of ethical principles. We find this thinking nowhere in Christ’s Gospel, only in a secularized script—materialism dressed up as religion. For the first 300 years of Christianity, you could not be a Christian and be a soldier. For more on this please view Fr. E.C. McCarthy’s presentation Introduction to the History,Theology and Spirituality of Gospel Nonviolence.

Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and we have words of inspiration from its founder, a more contemporary Christian, Julia Ward Howe in 1870 – "Our sons [and daughters] shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country
to allow our sons [and daughters] to be trained to injure theirs."
Another Mother's Day is celebrated without taking this proclamation seriously.

o do so, and to follow Christ, we must stop sending our children off to war, mortgaging their future by funding war instead of their education. We must send them into service as peacemakers, to battle the triple evils-- racism, poverty, and war itself-- that plague our world. Then on that judgment day we’ll hear God say, -- Blessed are you peacemakers, My sons and daughters. All of us Catholics, Christians, young and old, are called to be active witnesses, risking everything for this truth. Violence is never the way. God is unconditional love. There is no place for violence in the Holy of Holies, God’s heart of hearts.

A conservative's belief