Commitment to Shalom

High on the side of the Andes mountains, in a forest of millinery  “araucaria” trees, an ancient  individual stretches its umbrella like branches over the ground where a seed, after maturing through the summer, has dropped to earth.  Somehow this seed, protected by a  tough fibrous covering, has managed to escape the gathering hands of the Mapuche people who would depend on it for food and the gnawing teeth of the rodents and other herbivores.  The fall season brings the first rains, gently soaking the ground and providing a perfect climate for the seed to grow.  Many months will pass, however, before the araucaria seed will send its first shoot up to greet the cold mountain air and bright sunshine.  Meanwhile, the seed has all the appearance of being dead, a fallen thing, forest refuse, waiting to biodegrade and become part of the soil.    With a gentle surprise, the seedling eventually pokes up through the carpet of leaves and twigs and ever so slowly begins the arduous task of growing.  Through the icy winter snows, spring melts,  summer heat, and fall floods, the tiny tree pushes its tender limbs upward and its hairy roots downward steadily developing  season after season, year after year, decade after decade.   It will take many years for the tree to produce its first fruits.  But one day in March,  the southern hemisphere’s late summer, the araucaria will produce its first cones, each containing over two hundred seeds, and so the age-old ritual of birth, growth, new fruits, and death flows in the forest cycle.

            I meditated on Shalom as I sat on a boulder in the araucaria forest and  opened myself to learn from creation. The Hebrew word “Shalom” has a meaning which is broader and deeper than the word “peace” in English.  It is the desire of the best and richest blessings from God and it is the sense of tranquility, cooperation, and well-being on a personal and community level. Shalom is an invitation to a constant and profound search in the mystery of the essential relationships for life.  The Bible tells us that “ when peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice.” (James 3:18)  I considered what it meant for me to be a peacemaker planting the seeds of Shalom, and I compared my mission to the dilatory but constant growth of the  araucaria forest. The events of this past year have caused me to reflect in depth about the interconnectedness of life, and there with the araucarias, I wondered how the seeds planted in my ministry in Chile are intertwined with happenings and people around the world.

             With the daily news of injustice, war, violence and the destruction of the environment, it is easy for to lose sight of hope.  The United Nations has called upon the countries and inhabitants of the world to commit themselves to a culture of peace during the year 2000 and the decade that follows it. The Manifesto 2000 invites us to respect life, to practice active non-violence, to share our time and our material resources, to defend the liberty of expression and cultural diversity, to promote a responsible consumption of the natural resources, and to contribute to the development of our community.  We are called to be sowers and gardeners of peace assuming our role as protagonists in the promotion of healthy relationships departing from an inner transformation and projecting out toward others and the entire creation of God.  We must believe that as we patiently care for the seeds and delicate shoots of peace, we will one day harvest a healthy crop of justice.  

I seek to be a seed sower, an active part of the healing plan of God to help strengthen and transform the relationships of people with God, themselves, others and creation.  This is a life long learning process. I have many questions about how to plant and care for the seeds of peace in a troubled and violent world and how to create a balance between the needs of individuals and those of society while celebrating diversity in all of its human and non human forms. I want to continue to explore how "ecology", or the study of our home, includes the complex interactions between people, God, and nature.

“Today physicians, philosophers, theologians, and scientists are exploring the frontiers of a world in which relationship, rather than isolation is the key to understanding reality.  From the perspective of ecology, systems thinking, and the new physics, the universe is a dynamic community of interconnected energy events in which each unique being arises from the influence of the whole universe.  Amid the complex interplay  of pattern and novelty, the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings in California influences the weather patterns in Washington, D.C.  Physicist David Bohm asserts that the universe is a “holoverse,” or undivided whole, in which the whole is present and reflected holographically in each part, and the part shapes the character of the whole…  Love rather than alienation is essential to reality, according to the emerging metaphysical, theological, and scientific worldview.”  (God’s Touch, p.118 by Bruce G. Epperly)

            I have worked with the Pentecostal Church of Chile, a grassroots Christian movement, for the past sixteen years. Sometimes I forget that story telling and listening are a vital part of my ministry, and I try to rush through the story to get on with all the things that need to be done.   I continue to be surprised by the connections between the stories  of pain and hope and the stories of deep seated conflict and of new life.   September 11^th , 2001 will forever be branded on the memories of people, especially Americans, who lived, many for the first time, the harsh realities of international violence and hate at their doorsteps.  September 11^th, 1973 is remembered with anguish by the Chilean people.  On that tragic day, the military forces of the country, heavily supported  by the American Central Intelligence Agency, bombed the offices of the Chilean president and staged a successful coup that lead to years of a powerfully repressive dictatorship.  Although Chile now has an established democratic government, the unresolved issues of the dictatorship bubble just beneath the surface of society. Though there has been an attempt at "reconciliation and dialogue," the divisions between the right and the left, the rich and the poor, the indigenous and the "non natives", the city people and the country folk, Catholics and Protestants, continue to grow.

The vision of Shalom becomes a quest for those who dare to ask questions and seek answers.   How can we combine peace education with environmental education and Christian education in a hands on, dynamic, practical setting?  Where can we live together and work, play, and pray hand in hand?  How can we learn to love, respect and appreciate each other, ourselves, God and creation? Can we learn to face our conflicts and dare to grow through them instead of burying our differences and allowing the wounds to fester in our hearts, minds, and relationships?   How can we heal from our individual and collective traumas? The challenge is in discovering how all the parts of the system fit together.

Shalom requires a covenant with God and a willingness on our part to yield by faith to “a power not our own, which is to concede that we are not in charge and that we are not managers of our destiny and our ministry. Shalom is precisely the capacity to yield to the gift of power, which comes unexpectedly and unexplained and, therefore, is neither understood nor managed by us. . . (It) requires that we be open to guidance, to think thoughts and embrace values and take actions that we never thought we would do.”  (Living Toward a Vision, p. 149 by Walter Brueggemann)