Peace has its price

MY cellular phone was jammed lately with text messages asking for prayers for world peace. Of course, I join them in prayer. Who would not? Even the Pope has asked everyone to pray for peace.

Wherever I went these past few weeks, I see and hear people talking about peace. And some people start to talk as if they are experts of peace. In a way, that's a good sign.

There definitely are war jitters. That's one of the signs of the times now. But these jitters need to be understood properly, so they could be tackled properly too. At the moment, it seems many are reacting through superstitions and other irrational behavior, and we have to overcome these.

I get amused, for example, when some people say that Bush or Saddam should think and behave the way they do, so peace can be had. What presumption! As if they are in possession of data that these two crucial men possess. I consider this behavior childish, and with that I don't think we can go very far.

Threats of war can only mean there are some grave, massive, and urgent problems demanding radical solutions. Problems that we -- given the fact that we all form one body -- make or contribute to, one way or another.

In the end, we too, with God's grace, are the only ones who can provide the solutions, also one way or another. There is God's providence, of course. He is the Lord of history. But we too are the main actors who shape the course of history.

So we can say that no one can be completely innocent with respect to the causes and conditions of war, nor can anyone be completely indifferent or uninvolved to the solutions of war. The degree of responsibility or participation, of course, varies.

In this regard, it is good to remember that, putting it bluntly, wars can only be the effect and consequence of man's sins. First of all, personal sins that sooner or later grow become structures of sin in our society, thus creating the conditions for war.

It is good to remember this truth, so we can put things in their proper perspective.

If we want peace, let us remember that peace also has its price. And a stiff price at that! We should be willing to pay that price. Peace can only be a result of some war against sin. It never can be equated with complacency and passivity.

What good would our prayers be if we could not show any concrete effort when God would ask what we have done to avoid war? This is the questions we have to ask these days, and we better have good answers, otherwise…

We can never say that we have not done anything wrong, or that we have tried to behave properly or as expected. That would be presumptuous. There will always be things that we can improve on, or even more, things that we need to change or eradicate.

The causes of war are all too obvious to belabor. There is injustice in wide scale, there is poverty all over, there is arrogance and vanity, discrimination and hatred, indifference and all other forms of godlessness.

Do we realize that we contribute one way or another to these situations?

What have we done to uproot these in us, and to eliminate them in others and in our society?

A constant and ever deepening examination of conscience should be made to make all of us ever sensitive to the continuing and changing needs of our lives and of our times.

We should not think that this exercise is simply personal and would not have any effect on our desire to abort war. Remember that we form one body. What one part does or how it is, affects the whole body one way or another.

These war jitters nowadays should strongly remind us of the reality of our forming one body, all of us in communion with one another, so that we may be more aware of the social implications of even our most personal and private affairs.

The best, immediate and unavoidable thing we can do to help avert war is to accompany our prayers with the earnest effort to fight against sin wherever it is found. Peace has a price. Peace is a result of a war against sin.

These war jitters are a call for all of us to step up our war efforts against sin. True and lasting peace can only be expected by such strategy.