We publish an excerpt from an article by Chiara Francesca Lacchini, a Capuchin Poor Clare from the Monastery of Primiero and President of the Federation of Capuchin Poor Clares of Italy.
The full text appears in Sequela Christi 2023: “Artisans of Peace”.
Blessed are those who work for peace: God will welcome them as his children
How can we fail to recall the famous dialogue on true joy, in which, at the climax of a suggestive narrative, in which Francis masterfully summarises the arduous experiences of the final stage of his journey within the fraternity and shares with Brother Leo the culminating point of his experience: where is true peace to be found? Before a door that remains deliberately closed to welcome and to listening, but that cannot prevent a heart from remaining open — always and at all times — to recognise and consider others as brothers and sisters.
This is Francis’s understanding of the peace he offers to everyone as a greeting, one that closely echoes the Hebrew meaning of shalom. The true good one can wish for a person is not the absence of conflict, but fullness, and the desire to live from that fullness and wholeness which give meaning to one’s journey and original vocation. Here, each person has the opportunity to be a peacemaker, together with all those who seek to build a world of peace starting from small, everyday gestures — such as a greeting given or received — or a fraternal glance in the face of a hostile expression or action. […] To build peace is to work actively with the power of the Spirit, and such work requires the courage to make countercultural and just choices, knowing that this demands constancy and perseverance in doing good, and an open struggle against the evil spirit, the instigator of envy and strife.