Fighting Untiringly for Peace

The specter of wars, both large and small and in different forms, still prowls around us. It is, therefore, an equally opportune time to talk about Peace and to fight for it until it is achieved, including peace in traffic, where accidents make so many victims. One of the dangers that Humanity is facing is the vulgarization of suffering. From seeing it so much in the media, some people may begin to consider it as something that cannot be changed. This is the assassination of tranquillity among people and nations, when they allow themselves to be swept away by the “irremediable.” Nevertheless, everything in this life can be improved or corrected, as in the case of Bogotá, for example, with the reduction of criminality.

If, by this massacre of tragic news, families let themselves be seized by the absurd, slowly and surely this will take over their whole existence. . . .

Solidary and Altruistic Society

The unchecked brutality is debated everywhere, and people are ever more perplexed as to why no effective solution can be found, despite so many brilliant ideas. That is because the answer is not far away, but right next to us: God, who is not an illusion. Inspired by Jesus, the Apostle Paul said: “We are the Temple of the Living God” (Second Epistle to the Corinthians 6:16). John the Evangelist, in turn, asserted that “God is Love” (First Epistle of John 4:8). Over the millennia, Jesus, the Ecumenical Christ, the Divine Statesman, has been patiently teaching and waiting for us to finally learn how to live in community. This is a prospect born from His heart, which is solidary and altruistic, based on His New Commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you,” (The Gospel according to John 13:34), the Law of Spiritual and Human Solidarity, without which this planet will never know real social justice.

In a future that we, civilians and military of common sense, hope to be near, Peace will no longer be established under the caterpillar treads of tanks or the boom of cannons; over piles of corpses or multitudes of widows and orphans; nor even over magnificent accomplishments of material progress without God; in other words, without the corresponding spiritual, moral, and ethical progress. The hope of a better future is a flame that never goes out in the heart that perseveres in Goodness.

Another paradigm

Reprodução BV

There must be a paradigm for Peace. What would it be? Those who govern the world? Yet, in the contemporary era, while they discuss about it their countries are progressively arming themselves. The history of “civilization” has been like this . . . "Quousque tandem, Catilina?" (How long, Catilina?). Rui Barbosa (1849-1923), the courageous Eagle of the Hague, however, inspired by Divine Wisdom, warns us: “If you want peace, prepare yourself for peace.”

Jesus, the Ecumenical Christ, the Celestial Statesman, presented us with an excellent way of doing so: "My Peace I leave with you; My Peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. I give you the Peace of God, which the world cannot give you. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid, because surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age" (The Gospel according to John 14:27). How about trying it?