- Vincent Kundukulam
A few weeks ago, media was talking about the outbreak of Third World War. Providentially, such a fear disappeared when the cease-fire was announced between Israel and Iran. However, the crisis in the Middle-East is not over. At any time, it may again start because the underlying issue behind the Israel-Palestine conflict is not yet resolved. The Russia-Ukraine war is intermittently active. Besides, extreme nationalist ideology is on the increase in several parts of the world, including India. A culture of building walls of self-preservation increases. At this juncture, the initiatives for peace and justice must be multiplied so that the public opinion and international pressure win over the venom spread by the extreme nationalist movements. Obviously, this is the time for the Church to play her role: be the leaven of peace in the world.
Christians cannot remain silent while the hatred mounts up in the society because Jesus, our master came to this world as an apostle of peace. At his birth, the angels sang as follows: ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace among those whom he favors’ (Lk 2, 14). Sending the 70 disciples in mission he advised them to announce peace to people: ‘whatever house you enter, first say, peace to this house’ (Lk 10, 5). After resurrection, when he appeared to the disciples, he said: ‘peace be with you’ (LK 24, 36). Jesus rebuked the disciples who wanted him to destroy the Samaritans for not allowing them to cross Samaria on their way to Jerusalem (Lk 9, 51-56). Not only that Jesus instructed his followers to refuse violence, but also enforced them to love their enemies. He referred to the Father’s care for all creatures against the habit of Israelites loving only those who loved them in return. During the arrest of Jesus, when one in His company cut off the ear of the high priest’s slave, He rebuked him and healed the slave by touching (Lk 22, 49-51).
The Pope Francis observed that a kind of local narcissism, born of certain insecurity, leads individuals, groups and nations to the rejection of others (FT 146). The underlying cause behind the jealousy and rivalry is nothing else than the existing inequality and injustice existing between them in the economic, political and socials realms. Religious differences only add fuel to these burning issues. The followers of Jesus, who are caught up in the renewed relationship with God the Father through Jesus can no longer entertain this sort of exclusive thinking and behavior.
In the Bull of Indiction – Spes non confundit – Hope does not disappoint”, reading the signs of time the pope wrote: ‘we desire for peace in a world increasingly marked by violence and conflict’. And he wished that the celebration of hope in the Church recover the trust we lost in our interpersonal relationships, in international relations and in the promotion of the dignity of all persons. Solemnly opening the holy doors of all major cathedrals in Rome, pope Francis invited the whole catholic flock to kindle the light of Christian peace and hope among the marginalized sectors of people like the prisoners, children, youth, elderly and the sick without any frontiers.
As part of cultivating openness and thereby strengthening the efforts to build up peace and hope, the pastors, religious and lay-ministers can sow the seeds of human and gospel values in the minds of pupils, without any boarders. Let us practice the virtue of interdependence which helps us to bridge people and cement social cohesion. Then, some may ask whether it will lose the strength of Christianity in a world, where the ‘law of the mighty’ prevails? In this regard, the words of late Pope Benedict XVI are enlightening: ‘In external numbers Church may remain as a small flock – smaller even than statistics suggest. … However, even in its suffering and love, she will always stand for the ‘many’ and surmount all frontiers.
- kundu1962@gmail.com
