MAKING PEACE POSSIBLE

January 28, 2007

When historian Arnold Toynbee was asked for a quick summary of history, he said: "Wars, and rumors of wars." Why is there still an absence of peace on earth? Why do we continue to witness man's inhumanity to man?

When Jesus was born, the angels proclaimed, "Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth” (Lk 2:14). Yet, there is no universal, lasting peace.

When the Berlin wall fell in 1989, Communist Russia dissolved itself, and the former Communist bloc satellite nations declared their independence anew. The world breathed a deep sigh of relief because this signaled the end of the cold war. It meant the beginning of nuclear disarmament in earnest, and the end of the threat of global annihilation in a nuclear holocaust.

But it did not take long after that to realize that the end of the cold war was not the end of war. The world awakened to the reality that many ancient national hatreds had never dissipated, but had been smoldering beneath the surface, ready to erupt into fresh hostilities.

In the 3rd World, we see in many countries ongoing wars of liberation on the part of guerrilla forces organized against oppressive governments.

There are dedicated political leaders, private citizens, and groups working diligently for world peace. But the odds always seem overwhelming. The world seems to be a violent, chaotic, and deadly place, now as much as at any time in history. The threat of violence keeps people off the streets at night, away from public city parks, often armed, and behind locked doors.

Is there hope for world peace?

Perhaps to better understand peace, we might reflect on violence. The bible teaches that violence entered the world at the dawn of human history, when Cain murdered his brother Abel. Since then, there has been no end to violence.

Despite all human efforts, as Isaiah 59:8 says, "The way of peace they have not known, and there is no justice in their ways."

Peace is not just the absence of armed conflict and hostility. It's a state of mind, a spirit in the heart, a way of life that goes far beyond our natural state. Peace is something we must struggle to achieve. It will not happen naturally. We must make peace. Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God" (Matt 5:9).

We know from experience that great effort is required to maintain peace within ourselves and to be makers of peace with others. We lament the murders and other crimes of violence we read about in the daily papers, but discover the same dark impulses within ourselves. When another accidentally offends us or triggers our sense of anger or indignation, we unconsciously raise our voice, or we feel ourselves becoming hot under the collar. We glare. We may even seek to use our words as battering rams to strike the offender.

We notice at moments of unexpected insight into ourselves how we seek to control others and impose our will on them, whether it be our spouse, children, friends, or employees. We have our interests and want them defended. We feel threatened and seek to take protective measures. We misunderstand the intentions, or the words or actions of another, and assume a combative stance.

We look back on our life and remember all the times we were wronged, all the times we were cheated, mocked, made to feel small, psychologically or physically abused, and there swells up in us a sense of outrage, a desire for vindication, an attitude of self-justification when we strike back at an unjust, uncaring world. These are the seeds that give rise to violence and war.

We want a world of peace, but find that there is a lack of peace in ourselves.

How can peace come? How can it come to us and to our world? We need the help of grace. We need God. And we need something more than God. God will bless us and empower us, but we ourselves must work for peace as individuals, as members of the Church, and as citizens of the world.

Peace can come to the world only when we rid our hearts of warlike tendencies, and this requires God's help. We must make peace with God if we want God's peace to abide in our hearts. Once we have become persons of inner peace, we must spread peace abroad.

What strategy should we employ? The only one that will ever work is the one Jesus taught: "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you" (Mt 5:44).

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 05-Jun-2008 9:48 sitemap