Peacemakers will be Called Children of God

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Lesson Overview

The summer of 2020 has been marked by civil discord, unrest, and even violence. Seeing injustice in society, some have separated themselves from the majority, who have chosen to protest peacefully, and have given themselves over to anger, rage, and violence, creating a legacy of destruction. This tide of violence has even touched the Catholic Church, leaving its ugly mark as numerous religious statues and monuments have been torn down, beheaded, or otherwise vandalized.
As we witness violence in society, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and spiritually disoriented. What are we to think, and how are we to act when we see injustice? Now more than ever we need to encounter and share the healing love of Christ, which is most profoundly revealed to us from the Cross. If we cling to Christ, He will give us the grace to reflect the love of God directly into the world around us. In His Sermon on the Mount, Christ called the peacemakers in this world blessed; we must contemplate what it means to be a peacemaker amid the injustices of this world if we wish to truly follow Him.

In this lesson your students will:

  • Explore what the Catechism teaches about charity in the face of violence and social discord.
  • Discuss how the Church calls her members to bring about healing and reconciliation in society.
  • Examine the common ties all men share as children of God, made in His image.
  • Consider the teaching of Pope Benedict XV on the social necessity of Christian charity in an excerpt from his Encyclical Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum.
  • Determine how we can respond as peacemakers when confronted with violence in society.

Lesson Materials

NOTE TO TEACHERS:

The National Catholic Register article linked in this lesson mentions false allegations of rape against St. Junípero Serra and also describes acts of vandalism against statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints. Please preview the materials and use discretion when sharing with students. Some who have participated in the destruction of these Catholic statues and targeted Catholic churches are doing so as part of protesting racism and police brutality. For resources on combating the sin of racism use the following link: SophiaOnline.org/RacismWebinar

Activities:

• First, have your students read over the Gospel passages in The Peacemaker in Scripture warm-up activity and either silently or in small groups consider the reflection questions.
• Then, give the class Catechism of the Catholic Church nos. 2303, 2304, 2305, & 2306 and the excerpt from Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, along with the article “Catholic Symbols of the Faith Targeted in Recent Statue Attacks” from The National Catholic Register, found at the following link: SophiaOnline.org/StatueAttacks.
• Arrange your students into groups of three or four. Have them discuss what they read in the handouts and compare it with what they read in the article using the discussion questions.
• When each group has finished discussing, call on groups to share with the class some key points from their conversations. Lead a discussion on how we can strive to achieve brotherhood and true charity in our current society, and what challenges must be confronted in order to do that.

Answer Key

Discussion Questions

  1. The Catechism teaches that “Deliberate hatred is contrary to charity.” It warns us that “Hatred of the neighbor is a sin when one deliberately wishes him evil. Hatred of the neighbor is a grave sin when one deliberately desires him grave harm” (CCC 2303). Accept reasoned answers.
  2. Christ teaches “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” He says that those who do so will be children of God: “… so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” (CCC 2303). Accept reasoned answers.
  3. The Catechism defines peace as “the tranquility of order.” It is more than the mere absence of war or the balancing of power between adversaries. Peace requires “safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice of fraternity” (CCC 2304).
  4. The Catechism teaches that “Earthly peace is the image and fruit of the peace of Christ” (CCC 2305). Christ “reconciled men with God and made his Church the sacrament of the unity of the human race and of its union with God” (CCC 2305). Accept reasoned answers.
  5. The Catechism teaches that those who renounce violence and bloodshed “make use of those means of defense available to the weakest, bear witness to evangelical charity… bear legitimate witness to the gravity of the physical and moral risks of recourse to violence, with all its destruction and death” (CCC 2306). Accept reasoned answers.
  6. Accept reasoned answers.
  7. Pope Benedict XV teaches that the cause of the violence in the world is self-love, the rejection of the Gospel, and the turning away from Christ and the work of His Church: “peoples are more divided by jealousies than by frontiers; within one and the same nation, within the same city there rages the burning envy of class against class; and amongst individuals it is self-love which is the supreme law over-ruling everything” (Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum, 7). He is alluding to World War I, which began in 1914.
  8. Accept reasoned answers.
  9. He teaches that love, specifically charity—the love of God, is essential for true peace to reign on earth. Without divine love animating them, human institutions will fail and become corrupt. Accept reasoned answers.
  10. Accept reasoned answers. The vandalization and destruction of the statues illustrates what Pope Benedict XV observed about the causes and manifestations of division among men. The act of vandalization, regardless of the intention, contrasts sharply with the what the Catechism teaches about earthly peace and respect for human dignity and persons. A violent response does not amend violence, it merely perpetuates it. Christ has revealed to us that only by imitating His love can we conquer violence. This article gives us an opportunity to think of how disciples of Christ should respond to such manifestations of violence, and what it means to strive for peace in our society.
  11. He says, “The sad truth is that, beginning decades ago, activists started ‘revising’ history to make St. Junípero the focus of all the abuses committed against California’s indigenous peoples … But the crimes and abuses that our saint is blamed for — slanders that are spread widely today over the internet and sometimes repeated by public figures — actually happened long after his death.” Accept reasoned answers.
  12. Accept reasoned answers. If we do not know our own history, then we cannot truly know ourselves; we will not be able to discern truth from slander, or true accounts from invented narratives. Additionally, if we have no sense of history then we cannot learn from the past and will fall into the same errors that plagued generations and cultures in the past.
  13. Accept reasoned answers.
  14. Accept reasoned answers.

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