JUSTICE AND PEACE

EDUCATION
CFE 5A – CICM Mission in Action I
RATIONALE
Since the post-Vatican II years, the acronym
JPIC has gained an added meaning.
It highlights the need for action towards
structural changes that affirm human dignity,
personal responsibility and universal solidarity.
RATIONALE
To animate the group in the direction
of such action - at the personal level
as well as a community - is a key
challenge.
RATIONALE
Uneven opportunities to services,
self-development, and employment are often
woven in the fabric of societal relations.
Respect for fellow humans and equal rights are
sorely lacking in the world today.
RATIONALE
The mission of the CICM missionaries towards Justice, Peace
and Integrity of Creation targets its concern to the needs
and issues of a community like peace making among
societies (Human Rights and Non-Violent Conflict
Resolutions) and respect for all created things (Ecological
Issues) and people (prisoners and less fortunate people) in
society as they bring life to the Gospel and the Gospel to
life.
RATIONALE
Like Fr. John Couvreur who campaigned against
illegal logging in Isabela, a CICM missionary does
not only evangelize the word of God but also puts
these teachings of the Church through action by
responding to the call of just and peaceful world and
respect for the environment.
RATIONALE
Long before Justice, Peace and Integrity of
Creation were formally introduced,
applying Christian social teaching was
already a constitutive element of each
missionary’s proclamation of the
Kingdom.
RATIONALE
A heart in search for the lost and the
marginalized treads the less trodden path
when organized groups, communities or
parish structures tend to gravitate toward
power, honor and wealth.
RATIONALE
It is very true among early CICM
missionaries that even though they had no
formal education on JPIC, their actions
and active responses to the needs of the
community were already visible in their
ministry.
JUSTICE AND PEACE
JUSTICE AND PEACE
EDUCATION
JUSTICE AND PEACE EDUCATION is
education that cultivates awareness,
concerns and behaviors that lead to
peaceful and just conditions/structures and
relationships.
JUSTICE AND PEACE
EDUCATION
JUSTICE AND PEACE EDUCATION is also
called transformative education because it
seeks changes – in people’s mindsets, attitudes,
values, and behaviors that, in the first place,
have either created or exacerbated violent
conflicts.
 GOALS OF JUSTICE AND
PEACE EDUCATION
Build Awareness
1. Situations/forms of violence
2. Roots of conflict and violence
3. Alternatives to violence
 GOALS OF JUSTICE AND
PEACE EDUCATION
Build Concern
1. Empathy and compassion
2. Positive vision of the future
3. Social responsibility (Use ideals and
lives of peace and justice advocates.)
 GOALS OF JUSTICE AND
PEACE EDUCATION
Encourage Action
1. Personal change – own mindset,
attitudes, behavior, lifestyle
2. Social action and advocacy
CORE MESSAGES OF JUSTICE
AND PEACE EDUCATION
Justice and Peace Education is very
comprehensive in its content.
It has many important core messages but a
group of peace educators have identified
what it considers as the most important
ones.
 CORE MESSAGES OF JUSTICE
AND PEACE EDUCATION
Two Core Messages
1. Challenge prejudice and discrimination
because it hurts.
2. Conflict is a part of life but there are creative
and nonviolent ways of solving conflicts.
•Violence is harm that is inflicted by
humans, at various levels: personal,
interpersonal, group/social and global.
•It is different from harms that are brought
about by natural causes such as a volcanic
eruption or an earthquake.
• PERSONAL REFLECTION
• Reflect on your own experiences of violence which affect
you deeply. It may be a form of violence:
- you have experienced personally, or
- you have observed/witnessed yourself, or
- you have read about/know about through the media, etc.
•PERSONAL REFLECTION
•Describe this violence in only one line.
(e.g. "A killed B because of revenge.";
"My friend is beaten up by her
husband.")
•PERSONAL REFLECTION
•What are the ideas, conditions and
situations that you associate with
peace?
DEFINING PEACE AND
VIOLENCE
•NEGATIVE PEACE refers to the absence
of direct or physical violence.
•POSITIVE PEACE refers to the presence of
conditions of well-being and just
relationships in the various spheres of life.
DEFINING PEACE AND
VIOLENCE
•VIOLENCE is viewed as the “avoidable, humanly
inflicted harm to persons, societies and the natural
environment.” (B. Reardon, 1999)
•The ideas of negative peace and positive peace
correspond to certain forms of violence.
LEVELS OF PEACE
•Our understanding of peace should also
include the various levels of
relationships, beginning with personal
peace and expanding to wider circles.
LEVELS OF PEACE
•Personal/inner peace is so important because we
cannot give what we do not have.
•The transformation that we seek should not only be
the transformation of our society, but also inner
transformation as they are inseparable parts of a
whole.
LEVELS OF PEACE
•Inner peace suggests that we respond to
negative situations in positive ways, that we
apply the practice of mindfulness (thinking
of the possible consequences before we
speak and act).
LEVELS OF PEACE
•Forgiveness, rather than obsessing about our hurts,
frees our hearts and halts the inflow of negative
energies (Jing Lin).
•Cultivating inner peace is strengthening our inner
resources of hope, love and compassion, which we
will use in building outer peace.
CULTURE OF PEACE
•UNESCO has proclaimed a
“Declaration on a Culture of Peace”.
•In brief, the declaration states
essentially that…
CULTURE OF PEACE
A culture of peace is a set of beliefs, values, attitudes,
and modes of life that is based on respect for life,
human dignity and fundamental freedoms; peaceful
settlement of conflicts, and adherence to principles
of democracy, tolerance, cooperation, cultural
diversity, etc.
ASSIGNMENT – JESUS AND
VIOLENCE
•Reflect on the following question: If Jesus were alive
today… what would he say or do about the
following:
-Retaliation/revenge for harm done to us?
-Eliminating people who are perceived as problems or
“scums” of society?
-Going to war to “resolve” disputes?
 The Beatitudes
(Matthew 5:1-12)
1
When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up
the mountain; and after he sat down, his
disciples came to him.
2
Then he began to speak, and taught
them, saying:
3
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4
"Blessed are those who mourn, for
they will be comforted.
5
"Blessed are the meek, for they will
inherit the earth.
6
"Blessed are those who hunger and
thirst for righteousness, for they will be
filled.
7
"Blessed are the merciful, for they
will receive mercy.
8
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they will see God.
9
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
will be called children of God.
10
"Blessed are those who are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.
11
"Blessed are you when people revile you and
persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you
falsely on my account.
12
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in
heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the
prophets who were before you.
•The constitution or the basic law of the
kingdom of God in this world is the Sermon
on the Mount.
•This reaches its climax in the Beatitudes
which call the poor “blessed” because “the
kingdom of God is theirs”.
•Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for justice, for they shall be satisfied.
•Those who hunger and thirst are those who
long and work for the triumph of goodness.
•Blessed are those who work for peace, for
they shall be called children of God.
•The peacemakers are those who take the
spirit of reconciliation with them wherever
they go.
•Blessed are those who are persecuted for the cause
of justice, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
•Those who are persecuted for righteousness are those
whose presence becomes a rebuke to the evil ways of
others or a threat to their selfish interests.
•Our Catholic faith is replete with
teachings of peace and justice.
•We are told at Isaiah 32:17 that the
pathway to peace is justice.
•Rejection of violence, non-killing and non-harming
are strong in the Catholic tradition.
•In Isaiah 2:4, we are taught against war, of peaceful
settlement of disputes, and of converting our
weapons into food-gathering implements.
•Sirach 10:6 exhorts us to do no
violence to our neighbor no matter
the wrong, and not to walk the path
of arrogance.
•Ezekiel 45:9 states that “Thus says the Lord
GOD: Enough, O princes of Israel! Put
away violence and oppression, and do what
is just and right. Cease your evictions of my
people, says the Lord GOD.”
•Jesus is the founder of Christianity but
many so-called Christians do not live by
his teachings.
•Hence, there is a need to rediscover and
to recommit to His non-violence.
•The message of non-violence is central
to Jesus’ life and teaching.
-Love and reconciliation rather than
retaliation are at the heart of Christian
teachings.
-Jesus instructed us to “love one another”
(John 13:34).
-Non-violence is a consequence of the
universal love that the taught us.
•The “hard sayings” of Jesus like, “Turn the
other cheek” (Matthew 5:38-41) when a person
strikes us on one cheek – illuminates Jesus’
“third way” of non-violence as an active and
transformative alternative to either violence or
passivity.
•Jesus pointed out another way: Build an
inclusive community, including so-called
enemies, by using the power of non-violent,
loving, willing-to-risk-suffering action.
(Later, it will be called the Way of the
Cross.)
•According to Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,
-Loving your enemies… does not consist in
surrendering to evil – a false interpretation of “turn
the other cheek” but in responding to evil with good
(Romans 12:17-21), and thus, breaking the chain of
injustice. Do not repay evil with evil… God will
recompense…
-Non-violence is not mere tactical behavior, but
a way of being, of one who is not afraid to
confront evil with the weapons of love and
truth.
-He strongly invites all sides to renounce
violence, even if they feel they are right.
-The only path is to renounce violence, to
begin anew with dialogue, with the attempt
to find peace together, with a new concern
for one another…
-This is Jesus’ true message: seek peace with
the means of peace.
•Jesus’ non-violence is dramatized in
His life.
•He was courageous and creative in
the face of violence.
-Consider how he dealt with a mob of men
who were ready to stone to death a woman
they accused of adultery.
-He did not use superior force to overcome
their violence.
-He probably faced them with a calm, benign face, not
with a condemnatory and angry one, which could
have inflamed the situation.
-He simply said: “The one among you without sin,
cast the first stone.” (John 8:4-11).
-During His arrest, the Gospels describe one
of his disciples taking a sword and cutting
off the ear of a servant of the high priest.
-Jesus says: “Enough of this!” (Luke 22:51)
and heals the servant’s ear.
-In Matthew, Jesus says: “Put your sword back, for all
who draw the sword will die by the sword.”
(Matthew 26:52).
-His last words expressed love and forgiveness:
“Father, forgive them; they do not know what they
are doing.” (Luke 23:24).
•Note how Jesus responded to the political and
economic situation of His time.
-He denounced oppression from Rome-appointed
rulers and the Pharisees. (e.g. not to pay tithes meant
one was outside the circle of purity, the disabled were
considered unholy).
•Indeed, Christians are called to be people of
peace, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called the children of God”
(Matthew 5:9) and to do for others what we
want others to do for us (Matthew 7:12).
•Pope Francis said, in his World Day of Peace 2017
message, that Jesus walked the path of non-violence
to the very end, to the cross…
•The path to non-violence will not be easy, but is a
road that needs to be taken as the ethical and practical
option for humanity.
•ASSIGNMENT: My Commitment to Justice
and Peace
•Ponder/reflect on the prior activities, discussion
and inputs.
•Did the lesson spark any new realization on
your part?
•ASSIGNMENT: My Commitment to Justice
and Peace
•What are you being called to do?
•Think of at least one CONCRETE, DOABLE,
PRACTICAL and REALISTIC action.
•ASSIGNMENT: My Commitment to Justice and
Peace
•On a Letter Size Paper, create a poster-slogan
illustrating your commitment to peace and justice.
•You are highly encoouraged to present it artistically
or creatively.
•ASSIGNMENT: My Commitment to
Justice and Peace
•Name the file as <SURNAME, Given
Name MI>. (e.g. BORJA, Estela I.) and
submit it through Google Classroom by
September 23, 2021, Thursday, 5:00 PM.