Choosing peace

From Thomas Merton On Peace, p.30:

"It is the attitude prescribed by Pacem in Terris that must form our thinking as Christians in time of crisis, and not the closed and fanatical myths of nationalistic and racial paranoia. Only if we remain open, detached, humble in the presence of objective truth and fellow man, will we be able to choose peace. "

This got my attention this morning, both for the admonition to would-be peacemakers to remain "open, detached, humble," and for the idea that we must deliberately, and individually choose peace. I am at the beginning of the day just now, and after reading this, I see how the day ahead might contain, from one moment to the next, hundreds of opportunities to choose peace, or to choose otherwise.

We seem to be forced to take such frustratingly small steps, even as the world grows increasingly more violent and dangerous. Israel is apparently preparing to attack Iran, and Iraqi terrorists are threatening today to kill Jill Carroll, a young journalist from my town who was taken hostage two weeks ago.

I see that I have some choices today- to be overwhelmed by anguish and helplessness (not a completely unreasonable response, given the enormity of the problems and despair), or to practice harder--to practice peace, to choose peace, minute by minute, until I am more accomplished, and maybe better prepared to tackle larger problems. Peace is every step, Thich Nhat Han said, in the title of one of his many books, and maybe I am starting to get what he means. Maybe we really do need to hear the same message over and over again until the light bulb finally goes on (and then off again, in my case): Peace is the way. Peace is every single step.