Blessed are the Peace Makers
Posted By Fr. Jim Tucker on August 10, 2009
PeaceMaker: The Game. Finally! A video game that makes you think. I had a Latin teacher in high school that would always complain, “I know, you people don’t like to think. It gives you such big headaches.” It seems that mainstream video games these days don’t include the aspect of critical thought into their game play.
Well, this one does. It is a game that simulates the political environment of the Middle East Conflict. Players are asked to take on the role of either the Israeli Prime Minister or the Palestinian president and make choices based on incidents and circumstances pulled right out of today’s headlines.
For many years, I’ve been hearing about the conflict in the Middle East, particularly between Israel and Palestine, yet I never understood the nature of the conflict. The information seemed to be colored by particular interpretations that make trying to get the facts that much more difficult. This game is a way of putting one’s self in a decision-making role in order to get a better understanding of the whole thing. I tried to put my value system to work in resolving issues and quickly found that it’s more difficult that I first thought.
With so many people and groups scrambling to make up our minds for us, it’s good to have the space and the clarity of facts to form our own opinions about the world around us. One news agency always says, “We report, you decide.” If only that were true. Yet, that formulation of opinion must be in light of the Gospel. The Gospel does not tell us what to think but gives us a benchmark upon which we base our opinions. God made us all unique, yet as Christians, we are all members of the body of Christ. It is this unity we strive for. The night before He died on the cross, Jesus prayed “that they may be one, just as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one.”
Unity is God’s will, and in His will is our peace.
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