by Cris Alarcon]
As a man baptised as a Catholic over 50 years ago one would think the dogmatic answer would roll off my tongue without a thought, but what if you are not in church and don’t even know if you are even conversing with a Christian?
“Peace be upon you” is a religious phrase that is used to greet or say farewell to others. This is still in use today as priests and pastors greet their fellow congregants as a way to say goodbye.
Recently I have left a series of meetings with the words, “Peace be with you” spoken to me on exiting. My first response was automatic due to my familiarity with the religion’s dogma, but it immediately begged the question, “is this man a Catholic?” Recognizing that many of my Jewish friends use the same greeting in the Hebrew word of “Shalom” I knew the concept was larger than just a Christian idiom. It is also a common greeting used by members of the Nation of Islam as in, “As-Salaam-Alaikum.”
Being a common greeting in the three major mono-theocratic world religions, I suddenly did not know how to respond to “Peace Be With You” beyond my early childhood Catholic training. But what is meant by “Peace” in this context?
Violence or disturbance replaced with quiet and tranquility is the common American meaning. “Shalom” is a Hebrew word meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility and can be used idiomatically to mean both hello and goodbye. In the Christian book of John it is said that Christ was sent to declare forgiveness, mercy, love, peace.
The Three Graces are described “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity” which admonish us to have faith in God, hope in immortality, and charity to all mankind. Mackey explains why this is said: Faith is the evidence of things not seen – ‘when we see – we no longer believe by faith but through demonstration; Hope lives only in the expectation of possession, it ceases to exist when the object once hoped for is at length enjoyed;’ ‘Charity,’ [which originally meant Love,] ‘is exercised on earth in acts of mutual kindness and forbearance, [it] is still found in the world to come, in the sublime form of mercy from God to his erring creatures.’
Here is what Brother Clegg added to Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Masonry on Charity: We must not fall into the too common error that charity is only that sentiment of commiseration which leads us to assist the poor with pecuniary donations, but the more noble and more extensive use denoting that kindly state of mind which renders a person full of good-will and affectionate regard toward others.
“…Charity is the Corinthian pillar whose entablature adds strength, beauty and grace to the Masonic fabric; Charity is the radiant spark emanating from God, the inexhaustible source of love; the Charity that is swift of foot, ready of hand, in the cause of a common humanity; the Charity that writes a Brother’s vices in water and his virtues in enduring brass…”
With this in mind, rather than the dogmatic response, my response to “Peace be with you” is “Charity be with you.”
Be you religious, agnostic, or atheist, may Charity be with you.
Cris Alarcon.
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