1 February 2023

Wednesday of the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

In today’s reading, the book of Hebrews commends to us to embrace our identity as children of God and to embrace the way of peace with everyone. There is a curious line that follows this call for peace: “let no bitter root spring up and cause trouble.” In our lives, our hearts, our families, and our work, often times it isn’t outright conflict that creates disharmony and destroys peace, but rather the subtle and bitter roots of other spiritual problems: resentment, judgment, gossip, envy, jealousy, shame, comparison, self-righteousness, etc. These bitter roots can sink into our hearts and disrupt our interior peace as well as the peace we ought to have with others.

Today, let us pray with Jesus’ invitation: “blessed are the peacemakers.”  Where are we called to apply spiritual “Round Up” to the bitter roots in our hearts that affect our peace and prevent us from being peacemakers to those around us? Where might we be called to choose forgiveness, repentance, or change of behavior on our pathway to becoming peacemakers? Let us pray for the grace to be a peacemaker by rooting out any bitter roots or habits in our hearts and lives.