Five Ways to Live a Peaceful Life

by John Dear, SJ
 
First, Become a contemplative of peace and nonviolence.
The only way to deepen in nonviolence is through prayer. We need to become contemplatives and mystics of peace, people who sit with the God of peace, who take intimate time each day for our relationship with the God of peace, who allow the God of peace to disarm our hearts of our violence and the wars within us so that we can be disarmed and become people of nonviolence. Give God your own inner violence. Let go of anger, resentments, hurts and revenge, grant clemency and forgiveness to everyone who ever hurt you, and move from anger and violence to nonviolence and compassion for everyone, so that we radiate personally the peace we seek politically and pray for peace.
 
Second, Become an activist of peace and nonviolence.
Oscar Romero said, “None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something.”
Every one of us is needed in the grassroots movement for justice and peace. Every one of us has something to offer. Every one of us, like Rosa Parks, can make a difference. Get involved in some public action against war and injustice, some campaign, for peace and justice, and stay with it. March, vigil, organize, leaflet, fast, protest, pray and cross the line for peace and justice. Work to end the war on Iraq; abolish hunger; dismantle nuclear weapons, or reverse global warming. Do it with love and compassion.
 
Third, Become a student and teacher of peace and nonviolence.
Study the writings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King and Dorothy Day and the movements of nonviolence in history. Learn the methodology of nonviolence as a way for social change. Then, start teaching the techniques and lessons of nonviolence to everyone, everywhere--to families and friends, congregations and groups, so together we can all learn the wisdom of creative nonviolence.
 
Fourth, Become a visionaries of peace and nonviolence.
One of the casualties of this culture of violence, injustice and war is the loss of our imagination. People cannot even imagine a world without war, poverty or nuclear weapons. Like our ancestors, the Abolitionists, who came along and announced an astonishing, breathtaking new vision, a world without slavery--we are New Abolitionists, announcing a new world without war, poverty or nuclear weapons, a new world of nonviolence. Lift up the vision of a new world of nonviolence. Point the way. Help lead others back from the brink of violence, and imagine their lives, their communities and the world as a place of peace, justice and nonviolence.
 
Fifth, Become, like Dr. King and Gandhi, a prophet of peace and nonviolence.
Break through the silence, complicity and acceptance of our culture of war, denounce the false spirituality of violence and speak out publicly the truth of peace and nonviolence. Say the unpopular truth: “Stop the war and occupation of Iraq. Bring our troops home, let the UN resolve the crisis, and make massive reparations to Iraq. Don’t bomb Iran. Seek nonviolent solutions for peace. End world hunger, the death penalty, torture, and poverty. Abolish our nuclear weapons. Institutionalize nonviolent means of conflict resolution.