Finding the Path to Peace Through Forgiveness

Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the presence of God

In 1999 I was a part of Project Reconciliation led by a true peacemaker, paralyzed police officer Detective Steven McDonald. This trip was a part of Steven McDonald's mission of preaching peace through forgiveness. It had the goal of helping to heal the wounds caused by the religious and economic conflicts in the North of Ireland. It was a life-changing experience. 

WILLIAMSBURG, VA (Catholic Online) - In 1999 I was a part of Project Reconciliation led by a true peacemaker, paralyzed police officer Detective Steven McDonald. This trip was a part of Steven McDonald's mission of preaching peace through forgiveness. It had the goal of helping to heal the wounds caused by the religious and economic conflicts in the North of Ireland.

It was a life-changing experience.  All these years later I am still unpacking the lessons and trying to live them.

I thought of this trip when I read the epistle at Mass on Tuesday. It was an excerpt from the Apostle Paul's letter to the Ephesians and contained words of hope in the second chapter:

"For he (Jesus) is our peace, he made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his Flesh, abolishing the law with its commandments and legal claims, that he might create in himself one new person in place of the two, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile both with God, in one Body, through the cross, putting that enmity to death by it. He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father."

The Apostle Paul was addressing the divisions between Jew and Gentile in the early Church. However, the promise of reconciliation applies to all divisions between us. Jesus Christ, the Love of God made flesh, is the path to peace.

During those extraordinary days I witnessed the power of peace through forgiveness as the prophetic voice of an apostle of peace, Steven McDonald, helped bring healing between people who had suffered for so many years.

I met Steven McDonald at LaGuardia Airport. I was out of breath, sweating and irritated. He was at peace. It was an unusually hot day, and I was running to make the plane. I almost missed the flight on Ireland's finest, Aer Lingus.

We began a trip together that changed my view of life, the Church, the world and my sense of a call to promote reconciliation in the Body of Christ. At the time I was serving the Presidential campaign of Steve Forbes.

The mission was funded by an anonymous gift from Steve Forbes. I choose to reveal him as the source today because it shows the real quality of this good man.

The story of Detective Steven McDonald has been told and retold. Let me give a condensed version. A police officer with a great career ahead of him, Steven had been on duty years ago as one of New York's finest.

While interrupting a robbery, he was shot at point blank range by a young assailant, rendered quadriplegic, and left in a coma. During his recovery he struggled with rage, anger and profound depression. The Lord visited Steven during this time. He spoke to his heart. He told him that forgiveness was the only path to peace.

When he was shot, his wife, Patti Ann, was carrying their first child, a son, whom they named Connor. All three of them carried someone else within their hearts, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Though faithful Catholics, they never imagined that their faith would be tested by the fire that came upon them on that violent day. But the fire itself forged them into the gold of heaven on earth.

Since the shooting, Steven has been an instrument of peace, like Francis of Assisi. He proclaims to anyone who will listen - from the weakest to the most powerful - that forgiveness is the only path to peace. Steven has visited several nations and has been given citizenship in his beloved Ireland.

When Steven speaks, you have to listen closely because he has a tracheotomy tube for breathing and speaks in a whisper. But he doesn't really have to use words; he has eyes that radiate the peace that fills his weakened body.

He began to learn the path to peace when the Lord asked him to forgive the young man who had shot him. He did so, out of obedience at first, but he found a joy unspeakable in the experience-an enemy became a friend.

Since that day, Steven has been a peacemaker. He has experienced the blessing promised to those who accept the invitation to walk the path to peace.

The mission team consisted of Catholics, Protestants and members of the Bruederhoff community, whose leaders found solidarity with Steven's message of peace. The week came on the heels of the Good Friday accords.

After many years, I have only begun to unpack the prophetic depth of the experience of Project Reconciliation and the witness of Steven McDonald.

I saw in the streets of Belfast, in the bombed out buildings, the physical manifestation of the brokenness of the Body of Christ. I came home with an even keener commitment to help heal the wounds in the Body of Christ.

I came to see that what was visible in the bombed out buildings in the North of Ireland is hidden in the hearts of Christians who sin against the Body of Christ by harboring hate and wounding one another with words and actions.

In the 19th chapter of the Gospel of Luke we meet Jesus on His journey to Jerusalem. There He voluntarily offered Himself on the Second Tree of the Cross. He dealt death a fatal blow and crushed the evil one whose lies unleashed separation from God and the resulting bad fruit of estrangement.

The Cross, an instrument of torture, is now the sign of peace. For those who find their refuge under its shadow and embrace the One who stretches out His arms to embrace the whole world, it illuminates the path to peace.  That is because Jesus dealt with the greatest enemy of peace, the sin which impedes it in each of our lives.

With tenderness He looked out from the Mount of Olives and saw the Holy City of Jerusalem. He knows the City will soon be overtaken and destroyed by the armies of Titus. He weeps the tears of Love and cries compassion from His Sacred Heart:

"If this day you only knew what makes for peace- but now it is hidden from your eyes. For the days are coming upon you when your enemies will raise a palisade against you; they will encircle you and hem you in on all sides. They will smash you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another within you because you did not recognize the time of your visitation." (Luke19:41-44)

Jesus spent three years walking her dusty streets and encountering her inhabitants, inviting them on the path to peace. He taught in the temples and engaged the learned with the wisdom of heaven itself.

He healed the sick, multiplied bread - and even raised the dead. However, many who witnessed these miracles failed to recognize the time of their visitation. Their eyes were closed to the One who reveals the path to peace.

Jesus continues to visit us. He is walking in the dusty streets of our lives right now - if we have the eyes of living faith to see Him. It is in encountering Him that we find the path to peace.

In a world spiraling out of control, those who bear the name Christian are called to bring others to this path to peace, by bringing them to an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Peace is not the absence of conflict, it is the presence of God.

At the Last Supper Jesus spoke these words to his disciples: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid". (John 14:27)

Jesus removes the impediments to peace. He breaks down the dividing walls of hostility between us. He then invites us to lead others along the path of peace by living the message of forgiveness.
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Deacon Keith Fournier is Founder and Chairman of Common Good Foundation and Common Good Alliance. A married Roman Catholic Deacon of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, he and his wife Laurine have five grown children and six grandchildren, He serves as the Director of Adult Faith Formation at St. Stephen, Martyr Parish in Chesapeake, VA. He is also a human rights lawyer and public policy advocate.

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