In thinking about what I was going to say today my mind kept thinking about war. Every time I thought about peace my mind was also drawn to war. With this in mind, I thought about what a great opportunity this is to utilize a theological approach known as the via negativa, a Latin phrase used by theologians to approach an understanding and explanation of God by focusing on what God is not. By thinking about war, by talking about war, I could perhaps hint at or share a glimpse of what peace is. 

The problem I ran into however is that for the most part, my understanding and experience of war is that from a historical or news perspective. I like many of us gathered here today only know about war from a classroom or a news report. In this sense, I really couldn’t talk about peace or share an understanding of what peace is by talking about war because, to a certain degree, I don’t know a thing about war in part because I have never experienced it. 

Now that was the thought that brought me to what I could share today, what I could talk about because I have experienced it. I have experienced peace. Which leads me to ask a question of each of you… Have you experienced peace? 

Really think about it. When life becomes busy and burdensome when you have too much to do and everything around you is overwhelming, what is the feeling that comes next? 

What is that feeling of relief when you send that last email? Submit that paper you’ve spent hours working on? finish the test you spent days studying for or give the presentation that took weeks of research and anxiety to present. Is that a feeling of peace? 

Is there peace in the quiet hours of the morning when you’ve woken up before everyone else? Is there peace in the quiet hours of the morning when you’re about to fall asleep after everyone else? 

Is there peace when sitting around a table with loved ones sharing a meal, a laugh, playing a game? 

Is there somewhere specific on campus or anywhere else in your life where you find both an inner and outer peace? 

Have you experienced peace? I hope you have. If you haven’t I hope you give yourself the gift of finding a moment of peace. And today and each day moving forward, I invite you once you have experienced a moment of peace to look at the world around you and find the ways in which you can be peace. Find ways in which you can share the peace of your life with those around you. Find ways in which you can as a global citizen can be an advocate for peace. 

As Pope Francis implored in his prayer for peace, “Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman.”

May this peace pole on campus be a reminder for us to find peace in our lives and to be peace. 

May Peace Prevail on Earth.