From Conflict to Shalom: Isaiah's Message for Today
July 18, 2024 - Thursday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19
On September 26, 1983, the Soviet Union's nuclear warning system sounded an alarm indicating that the U.S. had launched nuclear missiles against the country. Colonel Stanislav Petrov, the officer on duty, had 10 minutes to decide whether it was a false alarm, an error in the computer system, or a real attack. The chances were 50-50, but Petrov informed his superiors that it was a false alarm and waited, hoping he was right. His decision prevented a nuclear war with catastrophic consequences.
Today's excerpt from Isaiah includes many touching statements. For example, "When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness" (Isaiah 26:9) and "we gave birth to wind" (Isaiah 26:18). However, the one that resonates with me at this present moment is from verse 12: "Lord, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us" (Isaiah 26:12).
You have probably heard that the Hebrew word "shalom" has a vast range of meanings, and peace from war is one among them. Since Isaiah spoke those words, the history of humanity has experienced countless wars and armed conflicts. Recently, two conflicts have dominated the news: the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza. In both conflicts, there have been negotiations towards peace, but so far, no agreement on ending these conflicts seems forthcoming. Moreover, there are 'contemporary prophets' who tell us to prepare ourselves for an escalation of both conflicts and even for another major war.
Isaiah's statement about God establishing peace for us uses the imperfect aspect of the verb "to establish," which means that the action has begun but is not yet completed, is a habitual action, or will happen in the future. Thus, the statement can also be translated as "Lord, you will establish peace for us." Isaiah, together with the prophet Micah, includes a beautiful vision of a world without war that will be realized in an unspecified time in the future when "nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore" (Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3). But this prophetic future is yet another indication that establishing peace on earth is beyond human capacity. Only the Lord can perform such a miracle.
In 1963, just two months before his death, Pope John XXIII issued an encyclical letter known under the title "Peace on Earth." It begins this way: "Peace on earth, for which all men of every era have most eagerly yearned, cannot be firmly established unless the order which God laid down is dutifully observed." When we look at the universe, we notice how everything works smoothly without engaging in conflict. The sun and moon do not fight with each other for primacy over the sky; Venus and Mars do not war against each other to change their assigned positions.
The order that the Pope had in mind was the law written by God on the human heart, characterized by truth, justice, charity, and freedom, and its object is the common good of every citizen of our planet Earth. Thus, nobody can claim that their life matters more than others. Moreover, today we realize that "common good" embraces other living things and the entire nature as well. We are all interdependent and interconnected. The wise saying of the islanders from the Pacific makes it clear: "When we have eaten the last fish and cut the last tree, we shall realize that money cannot be eaten."
"Lord, you establish peace for us." Our hope is that God will not allow human insanity to destroy the beautiful world that He has created. Our hope is that His habitual work of establishing peace against our propensity towards war will one day be perfected and Isaiah's vision of universal peace be realized: "Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore."