In fights between married couples, the path to reconciliation always involves a mutual surrender. Both partners in the marriage must come to a place where they surrender their egocentricity for a greater good. In this way, true forgiveness always starts with the realization that all of us are sinners, imperfect, and in need of redemption. It has never been about who is right or wrong, but rather learning to accept that we all fall short of the glory of God.

As tensions have been raised in Baltimore, this fundamental reality is often ignored as entrenched positions seek to assert their position and to demonize the other. Whether this be right wing or left wing, such arrogance is always the mark of the devil. It is the lies of the devil that breed violence and fear, and division is a mark of the confusion created by his lies. We must always be on guard against self-righteous positions which really conceal layers of pride and egocentricity.

Thus, we need less self-righteousness and more self-forgetting. We need less focus on ourselves, and more focus on the unconditional love of Jesus Christ. We need less power, control, and self-assertion and more a life lived by the wisdom of the Cross. All ideals will ultimately fail humanity because the path of solidarity and peace is grounded in communion with God. Without God, we build towers of Babel which implode on themselves.

All people must walk the path of daily conversion. As we do so, we open ourselves to the new horizon offered in Jesus Christ. Races are brought into friendship, not through clever programs of sensitivity training, but through the bond of communion that only God’s grace can provide. Power and wealth are put at the service of solidarity as people of different economic categories are brought into communion with Christ. In all things and at all times, Christ is the life, and the truth, and the way.

Without him, all else falls short. In him we learn to let go of our entrenched ideologies and our limited points of view and live in the glory of adopted sonship. If we want to create peace in the world, we must be prophetic witnesses of the call of conversion, a call that must be made to all people regardless of political parties or social standing.