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From Terror to Peace

After the succession of attacks happening all around us, can we still believe in peace? (Richard R.)

It is disconcerting, to note how the climate of terror has spread worldwide. An attack in places where many people peacefully converge, tourist areas where people from other places visit popular sites. It seems that nothing makes sense anymore. Why are these things happening to innocent people: people quietly walking along the London Bridge or the Champs Elysees, or watching a movie at Resorts World Manila or even praying inside a mosque or a church in Marawi? What have they done to deserve such atrocity and violence?

A lump remains in the throat and gone is the serenity from our hearts. Our eyes suddenly become aware of other people’s skin color or of one’s religious beliefs. We now tend to look at those different from us with suspicion and mistrust. With such an attitude being fostered in us, it seems that the terrorists have won their war, spewing a powerful venom of hatred that turns citizens of the world against each other. There is a growing culture of fear and divisiveness and this is what terrorists want!

Must we lose hope?

This is the time to echo those ancient yet authentically ‘new’ words of the Gospel: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God” (Mt 5: 9). The beatitude of which Jesus speaks about passes through the steadfast embrace of the neighbor who is a brother. It is the inevitable awareness that in Christ’s cross was revealed “one God and Father of all, who is above all, works through all, and is present in all” (Eph. 4: 6). When everything else is stripped away: race, belief, creed, orientation… we are all just men and women, brothers and sisters – children of that one God.

The most effective antidote to the paralysis of terror and divisiveness is then the countercultural dynamism of ‘love, capable of dealing with anything that can threaten it’ (Amoris Laetitia 111).

How? By loving all, by loving the enemy, by being one with others… in a concrete way. We can start by not excluding our workmates, our spouse, our children, our parents. We can rekindle authentic and face-to-face interaction with the person next to us on the train or in the bus, instead of occupying ourselves with our gadgets, reaching out to faceless individuals. We can start with a smile.

We take our cue from how Christ lived His life: To be the Son of God means to be like Him who continues to build bridges before walls with an untiring love. In his resurrection Christ conquered all evil.

Together with Him we will win over everything since love conquers all.

Fr. Paolo Gentili, Fr. Am Mijares and Jenni Bulan

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