Let justice and peace kiss in our land

Love and truth will meet;

justice and peace will kiss.

Truth will spring from the earth;

justice will look down from heaven. (Ps. 85:11-12).

One of the most intimate gestures of affection among human beings is the kiss. It speaks to present bonds of affection and commitment while pointing to future intentions to continue and deepen these. The Apostle Paul in his letters to the Christian communities often exhorts them to “greet one another with a holy kiss” (Rom 16:16-18; 2 Cor 13:12; 1 Thess 5:26). For Pauline Christians this is a way of greeting, much like a handshake today. It is also a sign of Christian love and unity, which we strive to live out in our parish communities today. Of course, with the pandemic afoot we can no longer give a physical greeting of peace or “holy kiss” but we engage in gestures of love and unity that are a sign of our Christian commitment to each other.

The Psalmist, in Psalm 85, laments that Yahweh’s favour has turned away from Israel. He calls on the image of an intimate embrace – a kiss between justice and peace. The intimacy of that embrace shows us that we are called to build bonds of justice and peace now so that promises of truth will spring forth from the earth.

Too often we believe in having in place the “right” laws is sufficient to bring about justice. But that is only one element of our call to live justice. For peace to be involved in the embrace, true justice must exist. We must work at building and deepening our social bonds as members of our society. Part of what that means is that we offer everyone an opportunity to fully participate in the society. This has been brought to our attention over and over in this pandemic when we see the number of students who are unable to participate in schooling for lack of proper instruments or internet access. We keep those children out of schooling at our peril.

All deserve the goods of citizenship, which include being able to participate meaningfully in the society. Everyone should be able to receive his or her fair share of the goods of society while contributing to the very creation of those goods. Too many continue to be non-citizens in our society even though they carry Jamaican “birth papers”. I know the importance of a birth certificate as I recently assisted someone from another Caribbean country to obtain his. Until he had that piece of paper in his hand, he was like a nobody. He did not have the rights that came with this national identity. He could not call upon his country for assistance or even recognition. That is a question of justice.

Let us embrace the value of justice and peace by making meaningful changes in our life together as Jamaicans. May we truly be able to greet each other with the promise and reality of a holy kiss in this our island.

ARCHBISHOP EMERITUS CHARLES HENRY DUFOUR