Blessed Are The Peacemakers

Over the past weeks, the Nobel Prizes have been awarded.  Of all the awards bestowed by the committee, the Peace Prize is the one that garners most attention. 

For many who follow the news, the Peace Prize recipient is just a name, and usually a name we don’t recognize.  That was the case this year, when a South African expert in international law, Navanethem Pillay, received the award. 

I’m convinced that publicizing the name of the Peace Prize recipient isn’t the real goal of the Nobel committee.  The committee’s wish is that the award will be a teaching opportunity for the world, a lesson in what “peace” means in our day, and an encouragement to others in their efforts—often unrecognized—to further peace.

Ms. Pillay’s credentials are certainly impressive.  In her youth in South Africa, she was a victim of the discrimination that was the cornerstone of apartheid.  She was also an early defender of Nelson Mandela and other freedom fighters in her country.  But it is her efforts for peace over a lifetime and across borders that are so inspiring. 

She has served on the high court of her own country as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.  She has also served as the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the UN.  More recently, she is serving on various official inquiries into human rights abuses in Myanmar and in Palestine. 

What Ms. Pillay “teaches” by her lifetime of service is that there is a clear connection between peace and international law.  Put more simply, peace demands justice and justice in necessary for peace to exist.

The stress here should be put on the “international” in international law.  Authoritarian leaders around the world want to say that “might makes right,” that those in power get to decide what constitutes justice and fairness. 

The concept of international law maintains something quite different.  Humanity as a whole knows what is just and fair, and humanity as a whole must defend justice and fairness wherever they are threatened in the world.  That is what brought Ms. Pillay, a South African legal expert, to care about abuses of justice in Rwanda, Myanmar, and Palestine.  

As the Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ms. Pillay teaches us something else about the award.  She didn’t do any of her legal work in her country or elsewhere in order to receive this prize.  The award was a surprise to her. 

The surprise element is something the Nobel committee has always preserved.  Any person who campaigns for the Peace Prize is guaranteed not to receive it.  In that way, the Nobel Peace Prize reminds me of sainthood in the religions of the world.  Those who see themselves as saints have by that arrogance disqualified themselves for consideration. 

The same is true of Nobel Peace Prize recipients.  They never audition for the award.  They don’t campaign for it.  They don’t get people to put their names forward for consideration.

What do they do?  They forget about awards and get down to the hard and often invisible work of promoting justice for all.  Jesus didn’t say, “Famous are the peacemakers” or “Well-known are the peacemakers” but “Blessed (by God) are the peacemakers.”