What an unforgettable moment this is! In the history of our nation this is the first time that a Cardinal of the Catholic Church has ever received such a prestigious award for a Pastoral Statement made by the Bishops of the United States concerning questions of military arms, national security and public morals. This statement has been constructed, moreover, with the help of scientists, medical practitioners, academic scholars, military authorities, technical experts on arms control and diplomatic negotiations, moral theologians, and spiritual leaders.
In the length of time given to the consultative process, in the openness which has characterized the composition of the document, in the ecumenical and technical variety of those who have contributed to its final form, this document, known as “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response”, may be unique in American civil and religious history. The historical significance of that document and what is happening in our midst here today should not be overlooked as we honor the Bishops and the statement they produced.
I wish also to express the thanks of everyone in this audience to the Albert Einstein Peace Prize Foundation, to its distinguished Board of Directors and to the Selection Board Members who chose Cardinal Bernardin for his leadership of the Bishop’s Ad Hoc Committee on War and Peace.
Let us applaud the Foundation, its officers, directors, and members. They deserve a public manifestation of our respectful support.
Cardinal Bernardin has just said, in the course of his speech, that ..."The spirit of a man like Einstein is ... a beacon of hope"; ... His spirit is a source of the hope we all need in the pursuit of world peace”...
That spirit is alive here today. Within this audience are many who have been inspired by the proposal for a “Universal Day of Prayer” which has been suggested. And they are ready to tell us what they think and how they feel about this new idea. You will be interested, I believe, to hear what they have to say; and since they are all individually, famous persons in their own right, let me, without lengthy introductions, present them to you, one by one.
First, then, may I ask Professor Victor Weisskopf to tell us what he thinks should now be done to keep “The Challenge of Peace” alive and a revivifying force for all persons in all countries.
Professor Weisskopf
CLOSING REMARKSAs we close this part of today’s celebration, I wish to refer again to “the spirit of a man like Einstein”, which can be “a beacon of hope” for those struggling for peace in our time. Those are the words Cardinal Bernardin used near the end of his address.
What is this spirit of Einstein that lives today?
It is not a spirit based on his scientific genius. Alone though that genius was epoch making, it does not distinguish him uniquely from an Isaac Newton or a Max Plank. Or from a Francis Crick or a James Watson.
It is not a spirit based on his mathematical abilities which do not separate him uniquely from a man like John Von Neumann.
It is not a spirit based on his economic wealth for his riches were not to be counted in dollars or gold. In material possessions he was relatively a poor man. And doesn’t this fact point to the most important quality of his spirit. Didn’t he display one of the rarest of all qualities, namely, meekness of spirit? Wasn’t his a spirit which displayed an almost total absence of arrogance of spirit, or euphoria of spirit, or even vanity of spirit? Wasn’t he in fact the personification of “modesty” -- modesty of dress, modesty of deportment, modesty of living, modesty of body, even modesty of mind, -- despite his genius? Didn’t he embody the exhortation that our “thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous or worthy of praise”?
Was Einstein a prophet in the Biblical sense? No. But did his spirit seek something beyond physics, mathematics, and science? The answer is yes.
Einstein wrote: -- ..."Science without religion is lame, and religion without science is blind...”
The idea of God was always with him. He wrote: ..."I would like to how god created the world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, nor in the spectrum of a chemical element. I want to know His (emphasis added) thoughts; the rest is a detail...”
Shouldn’t the proposed universal day of prayer become a day when we all try to think like Einstein thought, to seek like Einstein sought, and live like Einstein lived?
Prayer can be merely childish requests for good things for ourselves and for victories over others. “May God be on our side” is a favorite slogan; and “Thanks be to God for being on our side” is the universal claim of those who seek power for themselves. Many seek peace through strength, -- that is, through their own strength. They rely on themselves, foolishly thinking that they alone possess the power to defend and save themselves.
Now, however, we are all beginning to understand we cannot save ourselves by ourselves, from the consequences of nuclear war. The wisest among us have begun to realize we must start by confessing our own weaknesses, mistakes and vices, seeking forgiveness from our friends and even from our enemies. By public repentance for our own mistakes we can establish the foundation for reconciliation with others, yes, even with our enemies.
Einstein saw this need for a new outlook on life and a new way of living. He invited all persons to change their traditional minds and manners. In a memorable insight he said after the first nuclear explosion: “Everything has changed except our way of thinking”. And until recently he and a few others were almost the only ones who truly understood what he meant by that statement.
Now with a universal day of prayer in which we ask first for forgiveness and then for reconciliation, we can join Einstein in his humility and modesty, and together with his spirit and in his spirit we can begin to take the first steps toward a new way of thinking about ourselves, about our enemies, and about the future of human life on this planet, Earth.
