阅读经文 

在公元989年，昔日强盛的法兰克帝国瓦解了。当权派的崩溃导致暴力事件加增，残酷的派系斗争和地区性的战争，在今天的法国国土上此起彼伏。这时，当地教会的牧者便宣告“Pax Dei”（“神的平安”），这个宣告为那些没有能力自卫的人——平民、牧者和很多妇女和儿童——提供逃避暴力的庇护所。Pax Dei禁止贵族和他们的卫兵实施骚扰教会、焚烧房屋、殴打群众等等暴行。凡违反那些法例的人，其教会会籍将会被予以革除。

这个由教会发起的运动从一个不起眼的起点开始，却传遍了西欧各地，它以各种不同的方式流传了大约200年。我们迄今为止仍然视其为最早的大规模和平运动之一。

在Pax Dei之前大约1000年，耶稣便传讲过“使人和睦的人有福了”（参太 5:9）这样的教导，这教导令祂的听众感到震惊和难以置信。在那个时代，很多耶稣的犹太同胞都以抗击罗马帝国的暴力征服为理想。在耶稣的时代和中世纪时期，倡导和平实乃不易。时至今日，仍然如此。然而，耶稣激励祂忠心的跟随者们要致力于缔造和平，因为这正是神恢复我们与祂的关系并使我们成为祂儿女的方式。

In A.D. 989 the once powerful Carolingian Empire lay in ruins. The collapse of central authority had led to increased violence. Bloody feuds and local wars broke out in much of the area where France is today. That’s when local church ministers proclaimed “Pax Dei” (“The Peace of God”), granting shelter from violence for people who could not defend themselves—peasants, clergy, and many women and children. Pax Dei prohibited nobles and their guards from invading churches, burning houses, beating people, and so on. If anyone broke those rules, they could be excommunicated from the church.

From a humble beginning, this church-led movement spread through Western Europe, surviving in some form for about 200 years. Today it is considered one of the first mass peace movements.
Nearly a thousand years before Pax Dei, Jesus preached “Blessed are the peacemakers” to the shock and disbelief of his listeners. In those days many of his fellow Jews dreamed of rebelling against the ruthless occupation of the Roman Empire.

The call to make peace was difficult in Jesus’ day and in the Middle Ages, and it is still difficult today. Yet Jesus inspires his faithful followers to seek peace, for that is God’s way of restoring us to himself and making us his children.