Homily from Fr Paul Nicholson SJ for Peace Sunday

(Second Sunday in Ordinary Time)

Readings for Year B: I Samuel 3:3-10,19; I Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20; John 1:35-42

 Let me take you back to the first lockdown, last March, and to its Thursday evenings in particular. Nobody clapped for politicians then – or for accountants, or even for priests, for that matter. They clapped for carers – nurses, doctors, and NHS staff, and for those as representative of the wider groups of carers. Applause was not determined by salary, or the wider influence these people wielded as it’s usually thought of, but because we all recognised the importance of the role they were (and are) playing, and the dedication they brought to that role. In today’s first reading Eli tells Samuel to say in prayer “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”, and then to go and prepare to hear what God has to say. It’s clear that one thing God has said clearly to all of us over the last year is that those who care in these ways are vital to our communities. 

 The theme chosen by Pope Francis for this year’s Peace Sunday is “a culture of care as a path to peace”. Peace in scripture is represented by the Hebrew word “Shalom”. It’s the constant greeting Jesus offers in the gospel when he says to those he encounters: “Peace be with you”. This is more than simply an absence of war brought about by a balance of terror in a spiralling arms race. This kind of peace is the sum total of human well-being, that can only be lived as a community shared by all. So Pope Francis says that a culture of care is a necessary foundation for this peaceful community. 

 “What do you want?” Jesus asks these curious disciples who follow him along the lake-shore, and his response is to invite them to go and spend time with him, that day and in the future. He’ll teach them by his words and his actions how this shalom of human well-being is built up, in a way that exactly corresponds to the Pope’s insight, by fostering a culture of care: care of the needy, of the vulnerable, of outcasts and sinners and all those on margins of society. 

 You’ll have heard talk of how the world will be after pandemic ends, what the “new normal” will be. Will we simply go back to how we were living before, including the selfishness, greed, and injustice that were there? Or can our sense of the importance of caring, shown by teachers, bus-drivers, supermarket staff as well as medical staff remain? Can we really recognise in that “a path to peace”, and so dedicate ourselves to bringing it about? This may seem like an impossible dream, but it is God’s dream, and God’s dreams tend to come true eventually. 

 The way for each of us to be among those helping God’s dream to come true is to hold today’s gospel and the first reading together. Hear Jesus say to you, as he says to the disciples, “What do you want?”, and take time to tell him what your own dreams are. Then respond, as Samuel did, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening”, and listen to God’s voice as it can be heard in the world around us. Where do you have to look, to hear God’s voice? You might start by taking Pope Francis’s words: “a culture of care is a path to peace”, a path to that shalom well-being. Where do you see that culture of care being built at present? And how can you contribute to it? 

 Fr Paul Nicholson SJ