Peace be with you!

The message of His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the LIX World Day of Peace emphasises the urgency for peace, “the peace of the risen Christ—a peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering … (coming) from God who loves us all unconditionally.”

The peace of which he speaks “wants to dwell within us. It has the gentle power to enlighten and expand our understanding; it resists and overcomes violence.” He stresses that peace begins with the individual who can only radiate peace if peace already exists within the heart and mind. It is a conscious and deliberate choice, made consistently and is impervious to distress, fear and despair.

Similarly, as he delivered his Christmas Day ‘Urbi et Orbi’, he called for an end to the indifference that many of us have to the suffering and tragedy of others in war-torn and desperately impoverished parts of the world.

An attitude of humility and responsibility and openness to dialogue can help us to identify with our suffering brethren and to promote more humane solutions to the woes of the world.

As our unstable world seems to be tottering towards a worsening and widening of conflicts, powerful nations race to increase their arms and to develop and stock ever more lethal weapons. They claim that such weapons are necessary to act as deterrents and to ensure ‘peace’.

Fear and unpredictability and the lust for power and dominance over others do not equate with peace and instead aggravate the possibility of the unthinkable. Nuclear-armed nations possess the potential to destroy large swaths of the Earth and its people. World leaders cannot claim they are protecting their countries by using the threat of nuclear war over others. The truth is that such reasoning is driven by a terrible force of evil that, once unleashed, will be beyond human control.

Pope Leo’s plea for an end to the conflict in Ukraine and Gaza during the solemnity of Christmas was ignored. In addition to the thousands killed in Ukraine and the laying waste of its land, many more thousands are enduring a bitterly frigid winter with no heating or electricity. Food is scarce and there seems to be no end to their suffering.

There is a faint hope on the horizon that a peace deal can be worked out with the assistance of the United States but issues of restitution to Ukraine of territory captured by the Russians and of security and protection from future invasion and warfare remain to be negotiated and solved justly.

In Gaza, more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war. The country lies in ruins for the most part and starvation is a daily reality. The future of the beleaguered Palestinians remains uncertain.

In our own region, global powers are exercising sway over parts of the Caribbean and South America. Threats to escalate tenuous situations spread fear and can create an atmosphere of hopelessness and despair.

Violence has become almost the norm in Trinidad and Tobago too, perpetrated by citizens upon fellow citizens. Home invasions, becoming increasingly common and increasingly brutal in their execution. Angry, irresponsible, and inconsiderate driving on our roads, and domestic and sexual abuse are evils that plague this land.

Yet, despite the overwhelming gloom, we are called to be people of faith and hope. The Church must lead the way, encouraging a return to family life in its truest sense, to a recognition of our common humanity and a rejection of any philosophy and language that disparage others and destroy them physically, emotionally, or morally.

As individuals and nation, we must seek to allow God to enter our relationships with others and with the natural world around us. Peace is possible but we must choose peace and not allow ourselves to be governed by greed, resentment, or fear.

May the peace of Christ that passeth all understanding be with us all our lives.