Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. [Psalm 34:14]
Today, on the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, the Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of Peace. Introduced in 1967 by Paul VI, it was originally inspired by John XXIII’s encyclical Pacem in Terris. Today, Pope Francis’ message is: “War is suicide for humanity.”
[L] The Gift of Peace, by Joey A. Velasco. [M] Pope Francis leads a vigil to pray for peace in Syria in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sept. 7. [R] San Francesco, by Cigoli.
To a first time visitor to Rwanda, this “land of a thousand hills” is a picture of scenic beauty, cleanliness and peace. But only recently, this beautiful land dominated headline news around the globe for atrocities and crimes against humanity. Her suffering during the 1994 genocide was an eye opener for world leaders as well as all people of conscience. The desperate human condition in genocide-wrecked Rwanda acutely mirrored the general human condition of sin, suffering, and death which qualifies the fallen humanity for urgent salvation. As we understand the Incarnation of the Christ as a long-awaited divine interruption to lift humanity out of its death-destined condition, our reflection on this day is captured by three images, amongst myriad other images, that we consider as participatory of this divine interruption.
1. The Struggle for Peacekeeping
Peacekeeping is more often than not a costly and thankless job.
We need to pay tribute to the men and women from countries across the world who serve in UN peacekeeping operations. Those who have laid down their lives in lands far from their own in the service of peace shall be remembered as heroes. And member-nations of the UN must ceaselessly affirm their commitment to building a world free from the scourge of war and genocide.
Understandably, placing blames on any quarters for peacekeeping failure is always controversial. Fear, without doubt, contributed to the expatriates abandoning Rwanda in the face of machete-brandishing militia mob. The American officials, with the costly Mogadishu fiasco fresh on their minds, refused to get involved, opting to abandon the Rwandans to their genocidal destruction. Their Ambassador to the UN and their army general in charge of a niggardly small UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda, spoke strongly at the time against the failure of their own government, when the mere presence of an army of 10,000 American soldiers could have averted the whole 1994 genocide. Failed channel of communication has been blamed; President Clinton has apologized for the American misreading of the situation. President Kagame has placed blames on the French and the Belgians. Peacekeeping is a struggle; the importance of its work cannot be over-emphasised.
2. The Struggle to Give Peace and Reconciliation a Chance
“An eye for an eye, ” Mahatma Gandhi said, “only ends up making the whole world blind.”
Reconciliation and stability should be held up as model behaviour for all to emulate. The work of peace and reconciliation centres is painstaking and slow, but this struggle to give peace and reconciliation a chance in Rwanda is participatory in the divine interruption sorely needed in a land ravaged by war and genocide.
Visitors to Rwanda cannot but be impressed by President Kagame’s resolve, right from the time he returned to Rwanda and recaptured political control, to put a stop to the cycle of violence. Himself a Tutsi, it is impressive to say the least, how he participated in the divine interruption for peace, decreeing against retaliation and vengeance-killing and taking legal actions against even his own men for any breach of this decree. Wounds are long to heal. Peace is always a struggle; reconciliation is slow-moving. But all efforts on that road deserve serious support.
3. The Struggle to Become a Person of Peace
All roads to peace begin with the difficult struggle to become a person of peace.
The urge to hit back, to meet force with force, when innocent people are being killed, is one of the most difficult temptations to resist. Humanity seems infected by this deep “original” wound which manifests itself as an urge to “respond in kind” to violence and oppression. We seem so definitively wired for retaliation instead of turning the other cheek. Perhaps this is where Jesus calls those “blessed” who appreciate that when violence begins, the practice of love has been abandoned and rationality rejected. To be sure, the slaughter of the innocents in the world is always heart rending, but God chooses what is weak in the world to overcome the strong. Jesus on the cross shows us how God’s strength is perfected in weakness. In The Gospel of Life, John Paul II wrote:
- “Life, especially human life, belongs to God; whoever attacks human life attacks God’s very self.”
Here is a much-needed reminder that however monstrous we think the other person is, he or she is also God’s beloved creation. Truly, when we go to war, we attack God’s very self. Nothing was more infantile than George Bush, Jr. and Sadam Hussein both “religiously” claiming God to be on their side, thus outrageously suggesting that God was fighting Godself.
We recall being deeply struck by Pope Francis’ comments at the time when the Americans were posturing to invade Syria. In his homily at the prayer vigil for peace on 7 September 2013, he said:
- “We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death! Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!”
The pope argued that the Cross of Christ is the ultimate refutation of violence as a solution to humanity’s problems.
- “How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God’s reply: violence is not answered with violence, death is not answered with the language of death. In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken.”
We could not help but think that this remark – “we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves” – is in a way at the heart of the issue of war and violence. The Pope was calling for a prayer-vigil and mortification, and asking God to open people’s hearts. The US position was to use violence to combat violence, to “justify ourselves and our position, opposing chemical weapons”. In truth, the appearance of using the intellect to pursue good in this case was in reality using “rational arguments” to justify violence.
At the root of it all, lies the struggle to be a person of peace. This is the “deeper war” Pope Francis spoke about on the morning after the prayer vigil. It is the war against the evil within.
- “There’s a deeper war we must fight, all of us! It’s the strong and brave decision to renounce evil and its seductions, and to choose good, fully prepared to pay personally: that’s following Christ, that’s taking up our cross! This deep war against evil! What’s the point of fighting wars, many wars, if you’re not capable of fighting this deep war against evil? There’s no point! It’s no good… This means, among other things, this war against evil means saying no to fratricidal hatred, and to the lies that it uses; saying no to violence in all its forms; saying no to the proliferation of arms and their sale on the black market.”
From one Francis, we recall another Francis, the glorious saint of Assisi. May his famous prayer inspire us to become better people and to build a better world:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is discord, union,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is error, truth,
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is sadness, joy,
Where there is darkness, light.
Divine Master, Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, January 2014. All rights reserved.
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