Mass for Peace Homily

As Holy Week nears, and we prepare to commemorate the Lord’s passion, it is fitting that we pause to reflect on the immense suffering entailed in the wars that rage, whether in the Middle East, in Ukraine or elsewhere, and pray for peace.

In a sense, the Lord’s passion is being played out on a daily basis as people are killed, disfigured, orphaned, widowed, rendered homeless, or displaced. We all know that the suffering is immense.As Christians, and as members of the Notre Dame community, we are called to ask ourselves:

What is God calling us to do in the face of such pain?

Of course, most of us have the luxury of witnessing war from afar. We only know what we see in media reports and hear from government officials and spokespersons. For many of us, war demands very little.

The luxury of distance sanitizes war and we can begin to view it as a game. But war is no game.

Members of our military know it is no game. Those who have been physically or emotionally scarred by war know it is no game. Those who have lost livelihoods and those who have been displaced by war know that it is no game. Those who have lost family members and friends, whether they are Americans, Iranians, Israelis, Palestinians, Ukrainians, Russians, or others, know it is no game.

We are so privileged on this campus to have the opportunities that we have to conduct research, to study, and to learn together. However, this Catholic university must never exist in a bubble, and we must make sure that we are never indifferent to the suffering that goes on in the world around us. Rather we must deepen our understanding of how to end wars. We must deepen our understanding of the conditions and the interests that fuel war. And we must do our best to understand how to create conditions that make war less likely.

In today’s Gospel, in essence Jesus calls his disciples to be peacemakers, and, let me propose that regardless of our discipline, our major or minor, our research agenda, or our career goals, in one way or another God is calling us all to be peacemakers and peacebuilders.

That sounds nice. Peacemakers. Peacebuilders. However, what does it mean to be a peacemaker? What does it mean to be a peacebuilder?

Being a peacemaker does not mean being naïve about the real dangers in the world around us. It does not mean being oblivious to the affronts to human rights and human dignity that confront us. It does not mean giving way to bullies, to aggressors who seek to dominate, exploit, or destroy. In fact, if we are to be peacemakers and peacebuilders in the pattern of Jesus, we must deepen our understanding of these realities and take them seriously.

Jesus immersed himself in the violence that afflicted the people of his day, especially those on the margins of society, so often those who pay the highest price for war. In fact, his redemptive mission demanded such immersion, and he himself was a victim of such violence.

Being a peacemaker does mean, among other things, doing everything we can to seek nonviolent solutions. Being a peacebuilder means doing everything we can to create conditions to make war less likely in the future. Both peacemaking and peacebuilding require hard work—the hard work of bridge building. That requires dialogue.

While we must never be naïve, if we are to be true to our calling as peacemakers, we shouldn’t be surprised if we are called naïve. However, breakthroughs to peace have often only occurred because people have refused to let such disparagements discourage them. Peacemakers and peacebuilders are persistent.

Pope Leo has been clear and persistent in calling for a ceasefire and renewed dialogue as the war with Iran has intensified with deadly consequences for people of other countries, causing immense suffering and possibly making us all less secure.

Today, we join our prayers to the prayers of Pope Leo. We pray for peace. We pray that each of us in our own way might be the peacemakers and peacebuilders our society and our world needs. We pray for governmental leaders that they may be guided by wisdom in decisions that bring an immediate end to the bloodshed.

We pray for the men and women in our armed forces, and their families, who give of themselves so honorably and who pay a disproportional price for war. We pray for all victims of war, regardless of nationality. We must never lose sight of the inherent dignity of all of God’s children.

Even as we take the violence and threats of violence in our world seriously, let us never grow cynical or fatalistic. Let us not lose heart and instead cultivate hope through all that we say and do.

As we commemorate the Lord’s passion, let us not forget the end of the story. The Lord Jesus, who was put to death in the most humiliating way, was raised from the dead. There is no killing the power of love. There is no killing the Prince of Peace in whom a new day always dawns.

Let us pray that we might cooperate with the crucified and risen Lord, who is mysteriously in our midst, to be the peacemakers and peacebuilders the world needs.

March 27, 2026

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