Never has the longing for lasting peace acknowledged more today than the millennium just past,the bloodiest ever recorded. Have we failed within our hearts, within our communities, to resist anger, greed and violence and form instead a culture that sustain and fortify peace. We are now in an age of fear, distrust and animosity that threaten to tear us apart. The recent atrocities in Palestine and the Ukraine is causing us to stop and reflect on our lives and our global family as a whole. What we see is a disharmony between the rapid advances made by science and technology,the luxury that is attached to it and the suffering of those who still linger in poverty,hunger, disease, the scourge of crime of the most vicious proportions often against the most vulnerable in our society that claim thousands of life on a daily basis. Judaism informs us to love thy neighbourand to depart from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. Islam instructs us to enter into peace, act justly and to compete with each other in good works. Christianity tells us to be kind to one another,be compassionate and forgiving. Hinduism says we should live well together and render peaceful whatever is terrible. Confucianism instructs that we should seek harmony with our neighboursand cultivate the personal life in order to establish peace throughout the world. Buddhism tells us to live happily without hating even those who hate you,to constantly seek happiness without violenceand to realize that ïf your mind is peaceful, all things in your world will be peaceful. Many other spiritual paths challenge us to do the same. The road to Auschwitz was built by hate, but paved with indifference.as was the genocides of Cambodia, Rwanda, Northern Iraq, Bosnia and now Palestine. The elevation of international trade and power politics above human rights in China, Burma,India, Indonesia in West Papua and a host of other nations including Latin America and Africa must be addressed. Indifference in the face of moral ethics and spiritual belief is very difficult to reconcile. We cannot wait for divine intervention for the miraculous enlightenment of world leaders,the future of peace rests squarely in our hands.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Jul 2014 02:24:16 +0000
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