Have you ever seen those bumper stickers that say VISUALIZE WORLD PEACE? For some reason, they often seem to be plastered right next to some kind of MOTHER EARTH sticker. Maybe they’re sold in pairs. I don’t know.
At any rate, when I see one of those dopey stickers on the car in front of me at a red light, I’m tempted to go up and tap on the window and say:
“Hey pal… Do you really want to visualize world peace, not just some fairy tale version of tolerance, but the real thing? OK, work with me here… Close your eyes and picture this: a world in which each and every human being on the planet is a fully incorporated member of the Holy Roman Catholic Church.”
I wonder how that would go over? My guess is not very well, but that’s no reason to beat around the bush:
A world in which every single human person is Catholic – not just in-name-only “catholic” or “I-voted-for-Barrack-Obama” catholic, but truly Catholic, this is exactly what world peace would look like.
How do we know this? The very definition of peace is resting God’s will, and the Lord our God wills that every single human person be fully incorporated in the only Church He established, the Catholic Church. Shocking? It shouldn’t be; this is one of the most fundamental truths of our Catholic faith.
Now, we all know we’re not going to get there. We know that the fullness of God’s Kingdom of peace will only be fully attained at the end of the age, but that doesn’t change our duty to strive for it in the here and now, and the way to strive for world peace is to strive for a world in which every single person on earth is Catholic.
Go ahead; visualize it. That’s what world peace looks like.