Blessed Are The Peacemakers

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God." So says Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew 5:9 by the King James version of the Bible. Like many good sayings in the Bible, however, it needs clarification.

What exactly is a peacemaker? This is a very important question because there are some seriously distorted views roaming around the planet.

In the Wild West of the late 1800s in the United States the term "Peacemaker" was applied to a .45 caliber Colt revolver based on the logic that the way to create peace was to kill whatever disturbed it. Unfortunately, this kind of logic is still applied when nations send "peace-keeping" forces to other nations to quell unrest. While this may be a political necessity at times, it is really "conflict control" rather than peace-keeping.

Peace is a harmonious state of mind, body and society in which conflict is either absent or resolved without violence and in which relationships are mutually empowering and cooperative. A peacemaker, then, is one who facilitates this kind of state.

That means we can find peacemakers in the healing professions among nurses, doctors, faith and psychic healers, traditional and neo-shamans, and therapists of all sorts.

There are peacemakers among spiritual advisors, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists.

Peacemakers exist in the ranks of management consultants, negotiators, government agencies and businesses which foster peace by providing the means for it through technology and services.

Politics makes strange bedfellows and some of them are true peacemakers. Believe it or not, the military services also have real peacemakers.

The test of a peacemaker is not his or her profession or avocation, but rather the the intent, the approach, and the results.

The intent has to do with what you are trying to accomplish. If, as a healer, your intent is only to kill a virus or prove the effectiveness of a technique, you are not a peacemaker even if a state of peace in the patient comes about. If you negotiate the best possible deal for your company and peace happens to occur between the companies, you are not a peacemaker. You become a peacemaker when creating peace is the framework for your activity.

The approach refers to the means you use, because the means determines the end. Violence may stop or suppress other violence, but there won't be peace without a switch to peaceful means. A war can be "won" with arms, but peace has to come from cooperation.

The results are a matter not only of skill, but also of persistence. A particular application of skill or technique may not work in a given situation, but it is more important that you keep on trying to find a way toward peace that does work.

So you may already be a peacemaker without realizing it; you may decide to alter your life and become one; or you may know that you are one now. Whatever the case may be there is nothing greater you can do.

You may ask why I say that. Instead of a long explanation I'll give you a short Hawaiian proverb:

He ali'i ka la'i, he haku na ke aloha
"Peace is a chief, the lord of love"
(where peace is, there love abides also)