Light on the horizon. Photo by Dan Villani.

Approx. read time: 1:10 min.

Like many people, here and abroad, I viewed the February 28th encounter between U.S. President Trump, Vice President Vance, and Secretary of State Rubio, with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy.

What I heard was a hard push toward a brokered deal to end a brutal and exhausted war between Russia and Ukraine.

But a brokered deal, with great goods going to the broker, is, may I say, the antithesis of peacemaking, at least as our sacred traditions would have it.

Such a brokered deal is transactional  justice, a self-serving sham. 

True peacemaking—laying down weapons, beating swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks, and never training for war again—is the ultimately powerful, revolutionary expression of transformative  justice.

Why? Because transformative justice changes everything, restores and transforms everything to its original life-giving, life-sustaining purpose. 

True peacemaking, rooted in transformative justice, invites us to be human again!

I want to live in this kind of world, where both the oppressed and  those who do the oppressing are transformed, restored to their original purpose, goodness, and nobility.

My work is fully dedicated to bringing about just such a world.

Fortify yourself with my book Gospel Vulnerability: The Key to Costly Love. It delivers insight and strength for our times.

Be well. Live in peace. Love one another. And please, forward this post!