A Reflection for High Schoolers

This past week I was contacted by the youth ministry officer for Episcopal Church Faith Formation at the national church to write a short reflection for high schoolers on peace and the current violence in the middle east. Myself and a few priests/pastors from a varieties of denominations of Palestinian, Israeli, and Lebanese backgrounds (I was the resident Armenian) we asked to write a reflection a day over. Below is my contribution to ‘The Way of Peace’ for d365.

Scripture:

John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

Think:

Have you ever felt out of place? Like you didn’t belong? This is not just the experience of many high schoolers, but it is also the experience of people who have been forced from their homes – whether because they were unable to pay rent this month, or because they were forced from their homes through violence. This is the story of my family almost a hundred years ago. They were forced from their homes in what is now modern-day Turkey. It is hard for people who have been forced from their homes and who feel like outsiders to find peace.

Twelfth-century theologian Hugh of St. Victor once wrote, “But he is perfect to whom the entire world is as a foreign land. The tender soul has fixed his love on one spot in the world; the strong man has extended his love to all places; the perfect man has extinguished his.” What Hugh is saying here is that for all the horrors of feeling out of place, one of the positive things is that we are no longer bound by borders on who we can love.

This is the kind of love that Jesus shows to us by transgressing the boundaries of divinity to become human, die on a cross, and be resurrected for the whole world. It is this kind of radical, boundary-breaking love that brings true and genuine peace.

Question to Ponder:

How might we break down boundaries to show the radical love of Jesus to the world, and thus bring peace and wholeness to those who feel out of place?

Pray:

Galatians 5:22-23:  “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.”