Justice and peace

A blessed Christmas to you all! Yes, we are still in the Christmas season, despite the fact that the radio stations have stopped playing carols. This is only the seventh of the 12 days of Christmas! We must not learn our theology from the radio stations and the advertisements they play.

One of the big messages of Christmas is that a new era in world history began some 2,000 years ago, with new and great possibilities for the human race and for all creation. At the birth of the liberator, the angels sang, "Peace on Earth, good will to all humanity", and 33 years later - after he had been brutally killed, and had risen from the dead - his first words to his closest companions were, "Peace be with you". He remains bang on message.

The language in which the new era is described will strike us as somewhat medieval: the 'Kingdom of God', or the 'Reign of God'; but its deep meaning is fresh and modern. Never mind the many missiles and the multitudes of M-16s, a time of peace is coming when these (figuratively, of course) will be melted down and hammered into tools (ploughshares and sickles) that will grow wheat and grapes to make bread and wine. In this new dispensation - the 'New Earth' - behaviour previously rejected as signs of weakness (like meekness, gentleness and purity of heart) will be widespread virtues. Peacemakers and those who hunger and thirst for justice - they will have special citizenship in the kingdom, since they, above all, will have helped to build it.

The one who came at that first Christmas wrought a change in fallen humanity that was a game-changer. Someone had to break the vicious circle of humanity's inhumanity to humanity. Divinity had to come to show humanity how to be human. And, maybe, humanity would learn how to share in divinity!

Be peacemakers

And so Christmas reminds us to take up our cross and be peacemakers, to sing alleluia and keep on walking. Either we are workers building the kingdom, or we are working against the kingdom's coming.

Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice. That is why, without justice, there can never be peace.

And justice is right relationships. If every element is in right relationship with every other element, then the kingdom will have come.

Humanity must be in right relationship with humanity; we call this social justice. Man must be in right relationships with woman, and woman with man; we call this gender justice.

The state must be in right relationship with its citizens; we call this respect for human rights. The citizens must be in right relationship with the state; we call this social responsibility.

Humanity and the state must be in right relationship with the natural environment; we call this environmental justice and sustainable prosperity.

What better sentiments could we express for the new year, and for the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century, than for growth and development in right relationships in this land? That is the sure-fire way for justice and peace to take root in Jamaica.

We cannot have an end to crime and violence when the state does violence to its citizens by providing them with substandard education, stunting their life chances. We cannot have peace in our communities when our security forces don masks and shoot down innocent young men in the streets. We will not have justice and equity while there is an unholy and secret relationship between private-sector donors and political functionaries who control the awarding of lucrative contracts and waivers. We will never have a New Earth while we degrade the old one with unsustainable construction activity.

Since the incarnation and the redemption 2,000 years ago, we have had the potential to grow the kingdom from a small mustard seed into a mighty tree; but some of us are sowing weeds along with the wheat. In the year and decade which begins tomorrow, let us work hard for true justice and peace in this land, for it won't happen by itself.

Peter Espeut is a sociologist and a Roman Catholic deacon. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.