By Sister Jan Cebula, OSF
September 21, 2014
It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon and people were abuzz,
pledging to vote and signing the bus which was parked right in front of the
doors to the chapel of St. Ambrose University in Davenport, Iowa. But they
weren’t coming just for that. They were streaming in for the presentation of
the 2014 Pacem in Terris Award. To our very own Sister Simone Campbell. What a
fitting way to conclude Day Five and the Iowa leg of Nuns on the Bus!
The award was created in 1964 to commemorate Pope John XXIII’s encyclical
letter, Pacem in Terris (Peace on Earth), which called on all people to secure peace among
all nations. One might think, “Oh, no big deal; it’s only Davenport, Iowa,”
until one hears the list of previous recipients, all of whom had appeared in
person to accept the award: Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Saul Alinsky,
Dom Helder Camara, Mother Teresa, Helen Caldicott, Archbishop Desmond Tutu,
Sister Helen Prejean, and Lech Walesa,
just to name a few.
During the ceremony, I was quite moved as the names of the
prior recipients were called and a candle lit in each one’s honor. And moved knowing Simone was about to join
them. For her remarkable ministry, her courage,
her passion for justice and peace. For taking risks. For leading. For following the call of the
Spirit. And, in the words of the award, for being “a spark of light, a center
of love, a vivifying leaven.”
Sitting there I felt so grateful to be a woman religious; so
privileged to be part of Nuns on the Bus, this movement.
Taking the stage following the presentation of the award by
Bishop Martin Amos, Simone quipped, “The Holy Spirit has a very large sense of
humor that a Californian troublemaker could get included” in the list. Clearly deeply
touched and humbled, she continued, “What I know is that it’s not about us
individually but it’s about us together. Isn’t that what peace is about? Where
there is room for everyone at the table.”
Combining her sense of humor with an openness of sharing her
own spiritual journey, along with reflections on Pope Francis’s Joy of the Gospel, Simone touched and
inspired the crowd with her wisdom. Peacemaking is about the radical acceptance
of everyone, she said. And about fighting. Not fighting against. But for an
alternative future, for peace. “It’s
not about pushing back against this force that I want to eliminate.” That just
reinforces it and “you get stuck pushing on both sides. There’s no peace in
that.” It’s about standing side by side, looking toward the future and fighting
for an alternative vision where everyone is invited in. “Fighting for means we all need to aspire to the something
else. It’s fighting for a vision of who we see ourselves called to be. It’s
radical acceptance and fighting for the vision that makes for peace.”
All along the way, Nuns on the Bus have been hearing the
concerns of people. Sharing the stories of two women she has met, Simone called
stories “the root of peacebuilding. [They] break hearts. If our hearts are
broken open, we have room for everyone’s story.”
