Palestinian Quaker Jean Zaru reflects upon her lifelong commitment to peacemaking:
I call myself a Quaker or a Friend. And Friends, throughout history, have maintained a testimony to nonviolence. War, we say, is contrary to the teachings of Christ. Therefore, we are challenged to live in the presence of that power which wins through love rather than through war. This is no easy testimony. It has three aspects:
- To refuse to take part in acts of war ourselves.
- To strive to remove the causes of war.
- To use the way of love open to us to promote peace and to heal wounds.
As Quakers we believe that there is something of God in every person. Why, then, is it so hard for us to see what is of God in one another? Both sides in any conflict often have difficulty seeing the other at all, let alone seeing that of God in the other.…
I believe that we are called to conversion: to be converted to the struggle of women and men everywhere who have no way to escape the unending fatigue of their labor and the daily denial of their human rights and human worth. We must be converted, so to speak, to a new vision of human dignity, what we call “that of God” in each person, even in those we oppose. We must let our hearts be moved by the anguish and suffering of the other.
Zaru considers the inward and outward dimensions of her commitment to peace:
Early on in my struggles with living nonviolently in a situation of violence, I found myself at a crossroads. I needed to know in my own deepest convictions whether I really did believe in the power of nonviolence to transform a situation of conflict.… How can I have peace within when I worry so much about life in general and the lives of my family members?… How can I have peace within when our movement is restricted in our own country, when walls are built to imprison us and separate us from one another?…
As Palestinian women, we have a special burden and service. We are constantly being told to be peaceful. But the inner peace of which I speak is not simply being nice, or being passive, or permitting oneself to be trampled upon without protest. It is not passive nonviolence, but the nonviolence of courageous action.…
What is that inner force that drives us, that provides regeneration and perseverance to speak the truth that desperately needs to be spoken in this moment of history?… If I deserve credit for courage, it is not for anything I do here, but for continuing in my daily struggle under occupation on so many fronts, for remaining samideh (steadfast) and, all the while, remaining open to love, to the beauty of the earth, and contributing to its healing when it is violated.
| Psalm 122: Praying for the Peace of Jerusalem |
 Click Here for AudioA few months ago, I walked west with my son down the Mount of Olives and entered the Muslim Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem through the Lions’ Gate. On a normal day, we would have encountered a labyrinth of narrow, crowded streets bustling with merchants, cafes, tourists, and pilgrims. But this was not a normal day. The ancient streets were quiet, many stores and restaurants were boarded up, and we probably saw more soldiers than tourists.Israel’s war in Gaza, which began after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, was fifty miles away from us, but it reverberated through Jerusalem. Tensions were high, security was tight, and we all knew a wider conflict could erupt at any time. The unease was new for us, but certainly not for Jerusalem. N.T. Wright, perhaps the most famous living New Testament scholar, describes the city this way:“Jerusalem has been a place of conflict as well as of celebration for three thousand years, and somehow its continuing sorrows still function as a kind of symbol of the out-of-jointness of the whole world. Misunderstandings, bad memories, unintended consequences, and plain old-fashioned sin, pride, guilt, and fear all jostle together and make the city one of the most painful, as well as one of the most beautiful and evocative, places on earth.” A few days after my son and I left, we received a troubling text. The Jewish woman who had been our guide through the Old City, had been attacked by a group of young Jewish nationalists. Why would they attack a fellow Jew? Because she dared to protect a Palestinian shopkeeper from their racist insults and harassment. It was a vivid reminder that Jerusalem is indeed a mix of beauty and brutality; of ancient history and ongoing hostility.Psalm 122 includes a call to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem” (verse 6). The poetic beauty of the phrase is lost in English, but in Hebrew, it has a lyrical alliteration. The words for “pray” (sha’al), “peace” (shalom), and “Jerusalem” (Yerushalaim) flow together in Hebrew (Sha’alu shalom Yerushalaim), sounding almost like a mother comforting and shushing a crying infant to sleep in her arms. This maternal imagery for the troubled city was echoed centuries later by Jesus.As he traveled west from the Mount of Olives, on the same road I walked with my son, Jesus saw Jerusalem and wept over the city. “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes” (Luke 19:42). And Matthew’s gospel includes these tender words: “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gather her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37). Jesus’ ached for the peace of Jerusalem. He wanted to comfort and calm the strife that had always plagued its inhabitants. Sadly, even two millennia later, the peace of Jerusalem remains an unfulfilled prayer.As you reflect on Psalm 122, add your prayers to that of God’s ancient people. Add your prayers to Jesus’ own. Add your prayers to those of saints throughout the ages who have longed for the peace of Jerusalem, and to those who continue to pray for it today. DAILY SCRIPTURE PSALM 122:1-9 LUKE 19:41-44 WEEKLY PRAYERThomas à Kempis (1380 – 1471) Grant me, O Lord, to know what is worth knowing, to love what is worth loving, to praise what delights you most, to value what is precious to you, and to reject whatever is evil in your eyes. Give me true discernment, so that I may judge rightly between things that differ. Above all, may I search out and do what is pleasing to you; through Jesus Christ my Lord. Amen. |
