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Artisans of Peace (I): A Logic That Turns Everything Upside Down
La pace sia con voi! (“Peace be with you!”) Pope Leo XIV greeted the world for the first time with these words of the risen Jesus.[1] Since then, he has never stopped speaking about peace, which is more and more clearly emerging as a defining theme of his pontificate. The Church, the Pope said a few days later, must be a sign of “unity and communion which becomes leaven for a reconciled world.”[2] In doing so, he echoed a phrase from Saint Paul’s letter to the Colossians, which in all likelihood already formed part of the prayer of the first Christians: “He wished to reconcile all things to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20).
Peace is the fruit of interior victory
The battle between the logic of crucified love and the logic of power, force, and seduction begins within us. We feel the wounds, insecurities, and fears that lead us to suspect or to judge others. Alongside the good desires that God’s grace places in our hearts, anger, envy, the desire for revenge, impatience, self-assertion, resentment, greed, and hatred can easily arise. The colder the world’s spiritual life is, the angrier, more indignant, offended, and embittered its people become.
Anger, the driving force behind those various forms of resentment that invade hearts and societies, is a peculiar passion, not only because it sometimes leads us away from the good, but also because it often takes hold of the good and corrupts it from within, when it considers itself justified in championing a “just cause.” There then arises wrath, through which “one loses one’s footing, loses control, and therefore leaves the right path. And yet anger frequently operates within the path of goodness, using, for instance, the name of justice to intensify rage. Wrath attempts to justify unacceptable aggressive and violent acts for the sake of an argument in defense of the good or the faith. It is impossible to escape anger we consider justified.”[3] We may even envy people who impose themselves and get what they want through a “show of force.”[4] But biblical wisdom warns us: “Do not envy a man of violence and do not choose any of his ways” (Prov 3:31).
The family, the workplace, and society are all in need of “artisans of peace,” Christians who know that peace, “like all things crafted by hand, is made in small pieces to reach greatness.”[5] In any united family, you will find one or several people working for peace: taking the blame before blaming others, making the first move, sowing words of peace in heated arguments, smiling, and looking for solutions. In any united community, you will find someone capable of kindness towards people who criticize them behind their back, drawing strength from prayer and returning good for evil, seeing brothers and sisters instead of enemies, and debating ideas without attacking people.[6] In any haven of peace in society, there is someone struggling to overcome resentment, revenge, and bitterness, sacrificing themselves to find common ground: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21).
In order to “drown evil in an abundance of good”[7] and spread peace, we must first win peace of heart. “Peace is the consequence of victory. Peace demands of me a continual struggle”[8] to purify my senses so that God’s logic may draw me away from pride and violence. In our times, peacemakers are often viewed with suspicion or seen as tepid and faint-hearted. In reality, peace is the fruit of a mature character and interior fortitude: it means seeking to build, understand, and press forward; allowing provocations to pass without comment; forgiving those who harm us; and bearing patiently with those who insult us, as Jesus did.
“I know well your sense of powerlessness before the power dynamics that overwhelm you,” Pope Leo XIV told Christians of the Middle East in his Christmas message from the balcony of the loggia of the Vatican. In the face of organised injustice, the temptation of power becomes ever more insidious.[9] We want vindication. Those sibilant words ring in our ears: if He is the Son of God, “let Him come down now from the cross, and we will believe” (Mt 27:42). And yet, Christian witness — the kind that awakens repentance and openness to faith in others — necessarily means self-giving and sacrifice: this is the message of peace. The outcome is uncertain when we sow the seed of peace, because to love is to risk. The unrepentant thief fell in with the logic of mockery and contempt. But only the seed of peace can yield the fruit of the Spirit: “To all who received Him, who believed in his name, He gave power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12).
At times, we lose control and sow discord, act harshly, quarrel, or speak ill of others. Later, perhaps, we recognise that we were in the wrong, see the harm we have done, and resolve to make amends. This is a great first step, and it covers the ground of many of our daily struggles. Yet a sharper challenge arises when we ask ourselves how to respond to evil when we are in the right. How do we respond to violence, falsehood, wrongdoing, harm, and provocation when we are innocent, as Jesus was? Some have sought to distil from the Gospel a sugary pacifism. Others brandish the moment when Jesus says he has come not to bring peace but a sword (cf. Mt 10:34), taking it out of context.
In his first words as Pope, Leo XIV expressed a wish: “I would like this greeting of peace to enter your hearts, to reach your families and all people, wherever they are; and all the peoples; and all the earth.”[10] But this peace is not some kind of golden dream that comes about as if by magic. Indeed, the Pope said in a catechesis, “Jesus takes away our peace, if we think of peace as inert calm. This, however, is not true peace. At times we would like to be ‘left in peace’: for no one to disturb us, for others not to exist anymore. This is not God’s peace. The peace Jesus brings is like a fire, and it asks a lot of us. It asks us, first of all, to take a stand. Faced with injustice, inequality, where human dignity is trampled underfoot, where the fragile are silenced: take a stand.”[11]
This exhortation calls to mind St. Josemaria to a crowd of thousands gathered on the campus of the University of Navarre: “Interpret, then, my words as what they are: a call to exercise your rights every day, and not merely in time of emergency. A call to fulfil honourably your commitments as citizens, in all fields — in politics and in financial affairs, in university life and in your job — accepting with courage all the consequences of your free decisions and the personal independence which corresponds to each one of you. A Christian ‘lay outlook’ of this sort will enable you to flee from all intolerance, from all fanaticism. To put it in a positive way, it will help you to live in peace with all your fellow citizens, and to promote this understanding and harmony in all spheres of social life.”[12]
Peace, a gift from heaven wrought upon earth
“I will draw all things to myself” (Jn 12:32). The cross is God’s action in history, and peace is God’s action in our hearts. Thus, paraphrasing St. Josemaria, our apostolate can also be understood as an overflowing of the peace we have received from God, filling all our relationships with justice and charity.[13] “Peace is a value and a universal duty (...). It is founded on a correct understanding of the human person and requires the establishment of an order based on justice and charity.”[14]
Although God’s logic is challenging, we can, perhaps, see ways to invoke it in family, friendship, and community relationships, as well as within Church institutions and NGOs. But how can this reading of the Gospel resonate in armed conflicts, political struggles, the harsh codes of market competition, petty and large-scale corruption, the hostility of digital activism, media scandals, and cultural battles for lost values?
St. John Paul II called urgently for education in peace: “In the face of the tragedies which continue to afflict humanity, men and women are tempted to yield to fatalism, as if peace were an unattainable ideal. The Church, on the other hand, has always taught and continues today to teach a very simple axiom: peace is possible. Indeed, the Church does not tire of repeating that peace is a duty.”[15] St. Josemaria echoes the same counsel; like the Polish Pope, he did not live in peaceful times, and he experienced the war and its effects first-hand, from violence and hatred to deep-rooted resentments and everything that can spring from the darkest years of recent memory.[16] And yet, “in the midst of this world-wide cataclysm, with so much hatred and destruction,” he insisted that “we have been called to be sowers of peace.”[17]
Peace is cultivated in the soil of unity of life, with the seed of service, friendship, and dialogue. “With his grace, we can and must each do our part to reject hatred, violence and opposition, and to practice dialogue, peace and reconciliation.”[18] Mother Teresa of Calcutta put a Christian formula for peace into words: “The fruit of silence is prayer; the fruit of prayer is faith; the fruit of faith is love; the fruit of love is service; the fruit of service is peace.”[19]
Every gesture of generosity, act of care, and silent deed done for love generates reconciliation and hope in those around us. It is not simply a matter of avoiding conflict, but of alleviating the sufferings of others, following the logic of love and seeking neither recognition nor reward. Peace grows when we serve, when we give without expecting anything in return, when we lift up the fallen and accompany those in need. Peace multiplies in works of mercy.
Friendship, of which St. Josemaria was a great teacher, is another seed of peace: “In a Christian, in a child of God, friendship and charity are one and the same thing. They are a divine light which spreads warmth.”[20] If friendship is built on mutual interest, it is rebuilt by making peace. When personal friendship expands, it becomes social friendship. From this arises affection, “the humblest and most widely diffused of loves,”[21] which constitutes the first step towards seeing in every person a brother or sister; because “social friendship and universal fraternity necessarily call for an acknowledgement of the worth of every human person, always and everywhere.”[22]
From that perspective, we begin to understand how “friendship can truly change the world. Friendship is a path to peace.”[23] Seeing others as brothers and sisters inspires us to dialogue, which is the form communication takes when it is infuses with a spirit of service and fraternity. “Approaching, speaking, listening, looking at, coming to know and understand one another, and to find common ground: all these things are summed up in the one word ‘dialogue.’”[24] Dialogue is the air that keeps peace alive in relationships and neutralises hostility. It is a “house of peace”[25] in which truth is sought and shared, taking our interlocutor’s dignity as its starting point.
Dialogue purifies relationships because it unites amid difference: “True friendship also means making a heartfelt effort to understand the convictions of our friends, even though we may never come to share them or accept them.”[26] Peace does not fear plurality; it embraces it. It is freedom in all that is open to debate. Hence, as St. Josemaria explained, “in Opus Dei pluralism is not simply tolerated. It is desired and loved, and in no way hindered. When I see among the members of the Work so many different ideas, such a variety of points of view in political, economic, social or cultural matters, I am overjoyed at the sight, because it is a sign that everything is being done for God, as it should be.”[27]
In response to a question about current political affairs, the Father recently highlighted the same essential characteristic of the Work: “No one in Opus Dei will tell you whom to vote for, whom to support, or which cause to promote. It would also be inappropriate to create, even indirectly, an atmosphere in formation activities that assumes there is only one legitimate option for members of Opus Dei. Loving freedom means loving pluralism.”[28]
Cultivating dialogue means working on the small relational virtues that make it possible. Cordiality, empathy, clarity, consistency, kindness, authenticity, prudence, and firmness when dialogue seems futile… All of these dispositions of the heart make mutual understanding possible.[29] Anyone who has experienced true dialogue knows that we cannot say “just anything” in “just any way” because the tongue can destroy what unites and ooze deadly poison (cf. Jas 3:6). In his Lenten message, Leo XIV invited us to “a very practical and frequently unappreciated form of abstinence: that of refraining from words that offend and hurt our neighbor. Let us begin by disarming our language, avoiding harsh words and rash judgement, refraining from slander and speaking ill of those who are not present and cannot defend themselves. Instead, let us strive to measure our words and cultivate kindness and respect in our families, among our friends, at work, on social media, in political debates, in the media and in Christian communities. In this way, words of hatred will give way to words of hope and peace.”[30]
Truth and charity are the two wings of dialogue. Some erect a doctrinal wall to conceal their inability to understand people; others dilute their convictions in the ambient consensus to avoid having to witness to the faith. Neither of these alternatives constitutes genuine dialogue, because both shun the patience, humility, and courage make it possible.
Listening, sharing, understanding, seeking common ground, avoiding oversimplifications: these steps form the path to an “unarmed and disarming”[31] peace. They make us “agents of communion, capable of breaking down the logic of division and polarisation; of individualism and egocentrism.”[32] We want to be centred on Christ, as the Pope told influencers, “so as to overcome the logic of the world, of fake news, of frivolity, with the beauty and the light of Truth.”[33]
* * *
Centring oneself on Christ means looking at the world with the eyes of Christ on the cross, and gazing upon the cross as Mary contemplated it, even as a sword pierced her soul. The Rosary, in particular, “is by its nature a prayer for peace, since it consists in the contemplation of Christ (...). Anyone who assimilates the mystery of Christ – and this is clearly the goal of the Rosary – learns the secret of peace and makes it his life’s project. (...) In a word, by focusing our eyes on Christ, the Rosary also makes us peacemakers in the world.”[34]
Looking at the world with Jesus’ eyes means accepting the responsibility of seeing others as brothers and sisters, with the same contemplative attitude with which we wish to look upon the Tabernacle. That way of looking, coming as it does from the heart, renews our lives through true fraternity. Where once there was discord, there blossoms the lasting peace that only God can give. These are not distant ideals, but daily decisions, and each of these actions has a multiplying effect, like leaven in the dough. Every gesture of forgiveness, reconciliation, or unifying word is an act of redemption that opens a new course. Thus, working as artisans, “we will help to remove the all too common anxiety and fear of a future marked by fratricidal resentments. In addition, we will strengthen in souls and in society peace and harmony: tolerance, understanding, mutual relations, and love.”[35]
[1] Leo XIV, Address the day of his election, 8-V-2025.
[2] Leo XIV, Homily at the beginning of his pontificate, 18-V-2025.
[3] F. Rosini, El arte del buen combate, Madrid, Cristiandad, 2023 (our translation).
[4] Leo XIV, Homily on Christmas, 25-XII-2025.
[5] Francis, Homily in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, 8-IX-2016.
[6] Cfr. St. Josemaría, Catequesis en América, nos. 224, 575-576.
[7] St. Josemaría, Furrow, no. 864.
[8] St. Josemaría, The Way, no. 308.
[9] Leo XIV, Urbi et orbi message, 25-XII-2025.
[10] Leo XIV, Address the day of his election, 8-V-2025.
[11] Leo XIV, Audience, 22-11-2025. We might also think of Pope Francis’ advise for social movements: “We must put human dignity back at the centre and on that pillar build the alternative social structures we need. This must be done with courage but also with intelligence, with tenacity but without fanaticism, with passion yet without violence. And all of us together, addressing the conflicts without getting trapped in them, always seeking to resolve the tensions in order to reach a higher plane of unity, of peace and of justice” (Address to participants in the World Meeting of Popular Movements, 28-X-2014).
[12] St. Josemaría, Conversations, no. 117.
[13] Cf. St. Josemaría, The Way, no. 961; The Forge, no. 856; Friends of God, no. 239.
[14] Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, no. 494.
[15] St. John Paul II, “An Ever-Timely Commitment: Teaching Peace” (8-XII-2003, emphasis from the original). See also Benedict XVI, “Blessed are the Peacemakers,” message for the 46th World Day of Peace in 2013: “Jesus’ beatitude tells us that peace is both a messianic gift and the fruit of human effort.”
[16] Cf. Benedict XVI, Address in a meeting with young people, Sulmona, 4-VIII-2010.
[17] St. Josemaría, Letter 7, no. 58.
[18] Leo XIV, Urbi et orbi message, 25-XII-2025.
[19] Quoted by Pope John Paul II, Address, 20-X-2003.
[20] St. Josemaría, The Forge, no. 565. See also Letter 4, no. 25: “This is our spirit. And we show it by always opening wide the doors of our houses to people of all ideologies and all social conditions, without any distinctions, with our hearts and arms wide open to everyone. Our mission is not to judge. Instead, we have the duty to treat everyone as our brother or sister. We exclude no soul from our friendship, and no one should approach the Work of God and go away empty. Everyone has to feel loved, understood, treated with affection. I love the most wretched person in the most forgotten corner of the world, even if what he is doing is wrong. And with God’s grace, I would give my life to save his soul.”
[21] C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, Geoffrey Bles, London, 1960, chapter 3.
[22] Francis, Fratelli tutti, no. 106 (emphasis from the original).
[23] Leo XIV, Dialogue with young people during the Jubilee Vigil, 2-VIII-2025.
[24] Francis, Fratelli Tutti, no. 198.
[25] Leo XIV, “Peace be with you all: towards an ‘unarmed and disarming’ peace,” Message for the 49th World Day of Peace in 2026.
[26] St. Josemaría, Furrow, no. 746.
[27] St. Josemaría, Conversations, no. 67.
[28] F. Ocáriz, “Loving freedom means loving pluralism,” interview with The Pillar, 2-IX-2024.
[29] Cf. John Paul II, “Dialogue for peace, a challenge for our time,” Message for the 16th World Day of Peace in 1983 (8-XII-1982).
[30] Leo XIV, Message for Lent, 5-II-2026.
[31] Leo XIV, Message for the 49th World Day of Peace in 2026; Address the day of his election, 8-V-2025.
[32] Leo XIV, Address to Catholic digital missionaries and influencers, 29-VII-2025.
[33] Ibid.
[34] John Paul II, Rosarium Virginis Mariae, no. 40. See also St. Josemaría, In Dialogue with the Lord, no. 58: “Pray as well for peace in the world, so that wars and hatred might cease. Pray for peace in society, that there may be no class hatred, that people may love one another; that they may learn to live in harmony and be ready to forgive and pardon others. If they don’t, I can't see how it will be possible to find Christ's love anywhere.”
[35] St. Josemaría, Letter 3, no. 38.