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Humanity Hanging on a Cross of Iron
"Every gun that is made, every warship that is launched, every
rocket that is fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower, (1953-1961), an experienced military man of World War II who knew and understood more about war than almost anyone, spoke out strongly on the subject in an address delivered on April 16, 1953 at the end of the Korean War to the Society of Newspaper Editors, saying, “war settles nothing.” We would do well to heed his words. |
HALOM. For the
Jewish culture, "shalom" is a wish, a greeting, a blessing. Shalom is the fullness of life and includes all of life's
aspects: from health to economic stability, from family tranquility to harmony with others.
Shalom is "well-being of the whole", a gift of God, a promise that will be fully realized at the end of time.
Shalom is a concept far removed from our poor idea of 'peace as the absence of war'. It is the idea of abundance with the quality of social blessing:
"Justice (= righteousness) and peace have embraced" (Ps. 85: 1 1).
EIRENE. In the Greek culture, the word "eirene" has evolved and become richer spiritually, but it takes on a stoic face. But the peace of which Jesus speaks, "his peace", is not the promise of a quiet way of life and the absence of conflicts; it is, rather, a special gift of the Spirit by which the believer faces life's trials with serenity and comes out of them stronger. If, on the eve of his passion, Jesus promises it as an 'antidote' to the fear and bewilderment which within a few hours would scatter the disciples, now, risen, he gives it again and in a yet fuller manner: death has been conquered and the certainty of this caresses with solace and strength the Eleven, now ready to announce the Good News and to form the first Christian community in which full peace reigns.
PAX. The widely trumpeted "Pax Romana" rested on one simple principle: "If you want peace, prepare for war," (Si quis pacem, para bellum). It is a kind of balance of terror, which allows for the dominance of the strongest. Two thousand years later, not much has changed. This kind of 'peace' is the origin of the laceration which wounds us even today and which causes so much suffering. The concrete and pragmatic mentality of the Romans has perpetuated itself through the centuries, has pervaded western philosophy and even part of theology, up to our day.
SALAAM. "In the word Islam there is the word "salam", which also means peace. Islam is the submission of man to peace, submission to the one God to whom obedience, fidelity and loyalty are due." Peace is God's name, not just an attribute: "He alone is God: there is no other besides Him, who is King, Holy, Peace..." (Koran 59,23). It would be an illusion to seek peace outside submission to God. "Oh, you who believe! Enter all in His peace; do not follow in the footsteps of the Evil One" (Koran 2,208). In the land of His peace, the faithful meet and greet one another with salaam aleikum, peace be to you or, better, upon you I invoke the blessing of peace which is a gift of God.
How beautiful would it be if this world of ours were a land of peace where all would know the caresses of a Gentle God. Instead, it continues to be the land of war, where one has to deal with jihad, or the land of truce ... How beautiful would it be for all to truly greet one another with salaam aleikum ... with the firm commitment to leave the sword in its scabbard.
But, then, this disturbing question: Why isn't the Western World capable of using rationality, technology, commercial experience and instruments of democracy to oppose a terrorism which in no way can be tolerated or justified, and must instead entrust to the use of arms the hope of a peaceful coexistence of the world's peoples? Perhaps because it has forgotten that war has never built up brotherhood or justice.
"Power can guarantee the interest o some men
but it can never foster the good of man. Power always protects the good of some
at the expense of all others. Only love can attain and preserve the good of all.
Any claim to build the security of all on force
is a manifest imposture.”
Thomas
Merton: Passion for Peace; the Social Essays
Today's scenarios, in so many parts of the world, may seem like "re-runs', where peace is rather elusive. If we keep on doing the same thing, we must expect the same result we have always been getting.
Isn't peace not so much about taking away the "means of aggression" as it is rather about giving out the "benefits of shared resources"? Indeed, there is a need for a paradigm shift, a need for a change of mind/heart-set.
Dialogue should be more about peace-making than about peacekeeping. Peace is neither an entity for trade nor some thing to bargain for. Peace is rather the ability to go beyond ourselves, to love the people who are with us and those whom God, in His wisdom, has given us.
So, Peace, as gift of the Risen One, rests on two premises: preparing the ways of justice, ("Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice"), and choosing not to give in to the logic of vengeance, ("Vengeance is mine, says the Lord God'), but conquering "evil with good." If we want that the sacrifice of so many victims be not useless, we must build, in their memory and all together, new Towers: towers of international development, of global justice and peace enduring because founded on standards of development sustainable and equitably shared. All this, however, is brought about not by armies, paladins of justice, but by doers of peace, peacemakers, ready to pay a personal price, who attack and change the real causes of those unfair economics and those obtuse politics we know as the sources of poverty.
The whole world is our God-given space within which we have the freedom to remove injustice, alleviate poverty, annihilate oppression and restore righteousness. Within it we have the power to defend the unborn, support the elderly, uplift the hearts of the hopeless and heal the wounds of the loveless. "...When word joins word, a chorus is born a symphony, which will spread to every soul, quench hatred, disarm hearts" (John Paul 11).
We can do it because God loves us, loves us all.
Peace must give inspiration to all relationship with God and with fellow human beings.
Our fathers praised God for His might and power, for the strength of His great right hand. Yet, ours is a God of gentle mystery, who revealed Himself in gentleness, in compassion and in love in the forgiving glance, in the caress of little children, in the warm affection of the breaking of the bread, and calls us together with healing grace, bond of friendship, bread of peace.
(From Xaverian Mission Newsletter)