In the Service of the Cause of Peace - Not Me, Guv! A Plague on All Abstractions!

Am I the only person to feel uneasy about the following utterance by Pope Benedict, on the third Asissi joint prayer meeting?


"It will aim to commemorate the historical action desired by my Predecessor and to solemnly renew the commitment of believers of every religion to live their own religious faith as a service to the cause of peace."


And why am I uneasy?


Firstly, I do not, shall not, will not, and have no wish to, "live my religion as a service to the cause of peace", since I do not know what is meant by 'peace', and can imagine "peace" only in the context of Heaven.  Is peace the absence or end of war? tranquility of mind? the "peace" of Islam? just not causing trouble? Sometimes war is preferable to peace.


The problem with peace is that it is an abstraction, like Truth, Justice, Liberty, Equality, and so many others. Abstractions are cold, cruel, and without humanity. A plague on all abstractions!


Secondly, I do not live my religion in the service of something greater, because there is nothing greater. My religion is a Fact, awkward, uncomfortable, even at times to some people, rebarbative. Like gravity, it IS, even though at times, when I am working on a ladder and it starts to wobble, I might wish that there were no gravity. The Catholic faith is the Road to Salvation, no more, no less: and that is enough.


A long-dead Jesuit, Fr John Tracy, gave me a nice Latin tag, which I can remember only in English - The drink takes the shape of the cup which it fills. It is used to explain the need for inculturation, and the fact that a vision either will be culturally acceptable to the recipient, or will be rendered so by the recipient. I does not mean that the differences between God, Buddha, the Big Thumb, and Allah are merely cultural.


Our Church does not exist to serve some greater end, such as the Big Society, or the Ecology, or Justice. I exists to serve God and to save souls, no more, no less. And we sons and daughters of the Church serve her by serving other people, not abstractions.