Jeremiah 6:14

They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.

I have been recently doing some work on Jeremiah and I came across this verse again. As I understand it, the prophet is addressing Jerusalem under siege and the message that is being sent is by prophets and priests is ‘peace, peace’ or in the Hebrew ‘shalom, shalom.’

It’s easy to say ‘peace’ or ‘shalom’ or ‘calm down’ or ‘chill’ or any other words that deny the situation at hand. It’s easy to ignore the cries of those who are angry and hurting, especially if they are crying for a justice that we are not willing or able to provide. It’s easy to hold up Indigenous voices that support white colonialist rhetoric. It’s easy to promote the gay man’s voice who minimises the hate the queer community still experiences. It is easy to promote the conventionally attractive white woman who lets everyone know she is not like other women.

We are not living in times of peace. We are living in hard, destructive, deadly times. It can seem that our world is under siege. Environmental chaos continues. COVID and other diseases continue to undermine health. World leaders are pursuing warmongering and the innocent are dying.

It is easy to say ‘peace, peace,’ especially in Australia when most of the drama is over-there. But there is no peace, even if we pretend there is on the surface.

What might it mean to see true peace? And will we know peace in our lifetimes?