The Romans make a desert and call it peace.The popular rendition of this phrase comes from Tacitus. The original phrase, “ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant,” could be translated as “where they make a desert, they call it peace,” but in addition to meaning desert or wilderness, the word solitudinem could also mean solitude, loneliness, even a state of want, destitution or depravation. To be fair, the Romans often did literally make deserts. When they conquered an enemy, one of the things they would do was they would sow their fields with salt so that nothing could ever grow there again. A lot of us still believe in this kind of peace. We talk about going scorched earth, or bombing our enemies back into the stone age. Many of us are convinced that if only we could round up all of the [insert ideological group here] and shipped them all off to their own little island, then we could finally have some peace. But such peace, if peace you could call it, will only lead to loneliness. The problem with practicing the kind of peace that the Romans employed, where we basically stop all of the fighting by completely eradicating the other side, is that we start to make judgments of what kinds of people or what kinds of ideas are worthy of respect and tolerance, and which kinds of people and ideas are unworthy of respect and tolerance. Once we start deciding that some people are worth saving, and the rest are not only good for nothing but must be actively stamped out, the group that is worth saving will start to get smaller and smaller, and lonelier and lonelier, and more and more destitute and desperate. First we chuck out the bad apples, and then we throw out all of the apples that are too small, and then the apples that aren’t red enough, and then the apples that aren’t round or symmetrical enough. Pretty soon, none of the apples are good enough and we’re left with a completely empty barrel. Jesus said “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27). When Jesus said that His peace was “not as the world giveth”, He was referring to this peace of a destitute, lonely wilderness that the Romans liked to impose. This kind of peace is the peace of silence. There is no fighting because there is no one left to fight. Everyone thinks the same things in the same way for the same reasons. The peace that Jesus gives is not silence, but harmony. It is not the absence of noise, but of music built upon many voices singing different but complementary notes. Yes, at the beginning, the peace that our Savior gives is going to be messier and noisier and more chaotic than the silent, lonely peace that the world tries to impose. But for all of us who choose to embrace the noise and the confusion, missing our cues and playing over other people’s solos, or coming in too late for our own, falling in and out of tune and in and out of rhythm, on the far side of all of that chaos is a peace that is so much richer and more beautiful and filled with so much more love and connection and togetherness than any kind of lonely silent peace that the world might try to force us all into. I know that choosing the Lord’s peace means making mistakes and getting hurt and having to forgive people that don’t deserve it and having to beg for forgiveness from people who don’t seem like they will ever love us again, and it will be loud and noisy and confusing and scary and overwhelming and heartbreaking, but the one thing that it will never be is lonely. If we truly accept and receive and keep and hold onto the peace that our Savior gives, that means that we are acknowledging that He will be right by our side through all of the noise and confusion. We may feel like we have no earthly friend in all the world, but we will always have our Savior by our side, no matter what. And the more we embrace our Savior, and the more we are filled with His light, the more that we will draw others to us, and the more drawn will we be to others, so that even if there are times where it is just the two of us, Jesus Christ and ourselves, it will not stay that way for long. He wants to bring all of us together because He does not make a loneliness and call it peace, He makes a family and calls it peace.
