Matthew 5:1:12     ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’

In March 1988, during the height of the Northern Ireland conflict, Fr Alec Reid, a Redemptorist priest based in Belfast, was photographed kneeling on the ground beside the bodies of two British soldiers who had just been executed by the IRA.  Alec had the blood of one of the soldiers on his face as he tried to administer CPR to him and then the last rites.  The photo appeared on the front of many newspapers around the world and remains one of the most iconic images of the ‘Troubles’.  Alec was a peacemaker, deeply engaged in secret mediation between the political leaders in Northern Ireland at that time.  In his pocket that day was a letter from Gerry Adams to John Hume; the envelope covered in the blood of the soldiers had to be replaced before Alec delivered it.  His friend and confrere, Fr Gerry Reynolds, remarked afterwards: ‘I think the photograph is an image of the beatitudes that Jesus speaks about … Those beatitudes are … a quality of soul and character and mind and heart that enables one to, for the long haul, bring people together in peace and justice’.  Alec believed strongly in the power of dialogue and friendship, and persevered tirelessly in the pursuit of peace.  Former president of Ireland Mary McAleese said, ‘Alec’s lesson and legacy from his life on the streets of a divided Northern Ireland is that we who claim to be Christians have a moral imperative to be the guardians of this precious peace.  At stake is the very credibility of the Gospel, of Christianity itself.  Alec knew that.  It is why he made peace his ministry and why we must make it ours.’

As we celebrate All Saints Day, we remember people like Alec who stand on the frontlines’ of their communities, risking it all, those who persevere, who continuously work to bring light into the most impossible situations.  Saints are all around us, witnessing to God’s Kingdom through their actions, showing us that there is a better way.  They are the blessed ones.

© Triona Doherty & Jane Mellet, 2023.  The Deep End: A Journey with the Sunday Gospels in the Year of Mark.  (Dublin: Messenger Publications 2023).

‘If we want to reap the harvest of peace and justice in the future, we will have to sow seeds of non-violence here and now, in the present.                                               – Mairead Corrigan