Second Sunday of EasterSunday of Divine Mercy
“Peace be with you.” (Jn. 20:19-31)
A 1984 Wendy’s ad campaign asked, “Where’s the Beef?” In John 20:19-31, Jesus appears to greet his disciples and says, “Peace be with you.” Jesus twice repeats that greeting. Where’s the peace today?
Twentieth-century Theologian Karl Barth stated, “Take your Bible and your newspaper and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.” Peruse your newspaper, and you will see turmoil in our Church, nation, and world. Where’s the peace?
Divisions along religious, political, racial, nationality, immigrant status, socioeconomic, gender, and gender-identity lines. Attacks on voting rights and political violence (implied, threatened, or actual). The January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. capitol and its aftermath. Where’s the peace?
John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for Gun Violence Solutions reported 48,830 Americans killed by firearms in 2021 (26,328 suicides; 20,958 homicides; 549 unintentional; 1,000 shot by law enforcement), one every 11 minutes. Every day, 200+ emergency department visits for non-fatal gunshot injuries are reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports firearm injuries are now the leading cause of death in children and teens, and states, “Many people are shot and survive their injuries, are shot at but not physically injured, or witness firearm violence. Many experience firearm violence in other ways, such as living in impacted communities with high levels of violence, losing loved ones to firearms violence, or being threatened with a firearm. In short, firearm violence is public health epidemic that has lasting impacts on the health and well-being of everyone in this country.” Where’s the peace?
Think sundown towns are a thing of the past? Think again (see Tougaloo College’s History and Social Justice website)! Targets weren’t, historically, limited to Black folks, with Asians, Latinx, Jews, and poor Whites also targeted. Where’s the peace?
The Tennessee legislature recently vacated Historically Black Colleges and Univeristy, Tennessee State University’s Board of Trustees, and Governor Bill Lee appointed eight new Trustees out of ten. The Tennessean newspaper reported that a recent in-depth forensic audit “found no instances of fraud or malfeasance.” Where’s the peace?
Sexual abuse by clergy and Church leaders harmed countless people. In 2023, the AP reported, “cases of clergy abuse among African Americans are especially underreported.” This is not limited to the United States. For example, a 2021 report estimated 216,000 minors abused by between 2,900 and 3,200 French Catholic clergy out of 115,000 total priests and clerics between 1950 and 2020. However, the number is likely higher when non-clergy is included. Nor is it limited to the Catholic Church. A 2018 Psychology Today article by Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP, Separating Facts About Clergy Abuse from Fiction, stated “no empirical data exists that suggests that Catholic clerics sexually abuse minors at a level higher than clerics from other religious traditions or from other groups of men who have ready access and power over children (e.g. school teachers, coaches).” The article continues “the best available data reports that 4 percent of Catholic priests sexually violated a minor child during the last half of the 20th century with the peak level of abuse being in the 1970s and dropping off dramatically by the early 1980s.” Plante cites U.S. Department of Education research that “about 5-7 percent of public school teachers engaged in similar sexually abusive behavior with their students during the same time frame,” and states “while no comprehensive studies have been conducted with other religious traditions,” a “small scale study” he was involved with “found that 4 percent of Anglican priests had violated minors in western Canada,” and “many reports have mentioned that clerical abuse of minors is common with other religious leaders and clerics as well.” Abuse of anyone is horrible and outside of Scripture and Church Doctrine and teachings! Where’s the peace?
In our world, we have homelessness, poverty, food deserts, health care deserts, attacks on social safety net programs, climate change, environmental injustice, immigrants treated without dignity, racism, discrimination, gentrification, the legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings and slave patrols, police violence, over-incarceration, redlining, and White nationalism, where’s the peace?
Our nation isn’t alone. Crisis Watch monitors more than 70 conflicts and crises worldwide monthly. Where’s the peace?
The lady in the Wendy’s commercials may have never found the beef, but we Christians know where peace is. We find peace in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Jesus gives us the same peace he gave his disciples. As Fred Hammond and Radical for Christ sang in Philippians 4:7, “The peace that passes on all your understanding, will guard your heart and mind, through Christ Jesus”! Let us be the peace this world needs!
Author: Karl M. Pierce
"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 4:6-7).
Author: Karl Pierce is a Voices of Praise Gospel choir member at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Elk Grove, CA. He is a member of the Knights of Peter Claver and is active in the Diocese of Sacramento's Black Catholic Ministry. He currently serves as Chair of the Cultural Diversity Forum for the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. He participated in the National Black Catholic Congress XIII in 2023 in National Harbor, MD, and is an active participant in the annual Fr. Chester P. Smith National Black Catholic Men's Conference, which is part of the Bowman Francis Ministry. Pierce is currently a student in the Certificate in Contemporary Black Catholic Spirituality Program through the Center for Religion and Spirituality at the Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.