“A quiet night, a holy night, peace carries people all around ...” – so we will sing while we experience Christmas.
We will sing these words surviving in a planet where a large part of the globe is active in war conflicts. The war is taking place in European Ukraine, Asia, Africa and South America, in the islands of Oceania, 23 countries of the planet face conflicts of advanced or average intensity. For 10 years, there has been a trend in expanding the number and escalation of global warfare. David Malpass, president of the planet Bank Group on 7 March, concluded: “The latest trends are depressing and tragic... Conflicts have far-reaching social and economical consequences, among others, in Ethiopia, Congo, Somalia, Mozambique, Yemen and Afghanistan (...), they make it importantly harder to eradicate hunger and poorness in the world." He besides said crucial words: "The transportation of arms which is being delivered to unstable and conflict-stricken places must be stopped."
When we experience Advent in specified a reality, it is most likely worth a minute of reflection on the issue of peace, especially since on 1 January we will one more time (now 56!) celebrate the Day of Peace.
There are any uncomfortable questions in my heart. What irony is this or the devil's giggle? The more times we celebrate this holiday, the more war conflicts increase! The war map, the number of countries in which the most hard conflicts are taking place, has doubled in the last decade! What is incorrect with us? Or possibly this full celebration, as frequently happens with the pursuit of unity of Christians, is simply specified a preposterous act, a soaping of eyes to ourselves and others, possibly we are satisfied with solemn academies, speeches with high-lying texts, peaceful demonstrations? We call off another anniversary and it's okay, we can halt there, without exerting ourselves besides much, without endangering ourselves, without taking unpopular political or geopolitical action, or by putting our conscience to sleep?
Let us first consider whether, erstwhile we talk about peace by changing the word “peace” through all cases, we know what we are talking about? “Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Peace I leave to you, my peace I give to you. Not as he gives the planet I give you. Let your heart not be troubled nor be afraid... I will not talk much with you anymore, for the ruler of this planet is coming. But he has nothing in me." (Jn 14:27-31).
The ruler of this planet – we know who he is, the 1 who separates, perversely lies, mami souls – the origin of all conflicts and wars. And Jesus gives peace, gives peace to his disciples erstwhile Israel is under the business of the Romans, erstwhile the Israelites are not a free nation, are an occupied nation, erstwhile armed uprisings take place against Rome all move. In a moment, the judaic nation disappointed in the Messiah, whom they so hoped would bring them liberation, state independence, and who does not even effort to free them from a abroad yoke, whose "national cause" does not interest at all, which speaks of any another freedom which they do not understand, this nation of his, filled with anger, will shout "Crucify him." And he will request the release of Barabbas, who was a bandit but a militant “for the cause.” And in this world, ruled by the soulless ruler, in a planet full of cruelty, hatred, unforgivable, desire for vengeance, Jesus gives his disciples peace. What room?
So that we may answer this question well, let us scope to Lk 12, 49-53:
“I came to cast fire on the ground, and how much I want it to burn. Do you think I came to give peace to the earth? No, I tell you, it's a split. From then on, 5 will be divided in 1 house: 3 will stand against two, and 2 against three; father against son, and boy against father; parent against daughter, and daughter against mother....”
Note that in John's Gospel Jesus gives peace, emphasizing that this is His peace, only to his disciples, that is, those who have left everything and followed Him; they have left everything, that is, that is, that they have besides left their erstwhile thinking, their attachment to their relatives, to their fatherhood, to their nation, to their freedom, to their "national cause," and that is, to their reward they have received the peace of Jesus, that is, the peace that is in Him! John made it clear that Jesus only spoke to his disciples, to those who left everything for him and his Kingdom.
But in Luke's Gospel, Jesus speaks of what he gives the earth, all the earth, on which his disciples are but a fistful among the multitudes, a land full of those who do not know him and those who do not want to know him. besides full of those who hatred and despise him and his teaching, and mock at it, who pervert His teaching, who idolatrously worship another gods usage His Name to manipulate men, deceive them, lose their souls, who, calling upon hatred and vengeance, falsely claim to do so by will and in the name of the Most advanced God, perverting the image of God in the souls of those who have not yet known God.
And this land, full of unrighteousness, Jesus does not give peace, on this earth Jesus throws the fire of fact and love which carries a division. Those who desire the truth, who search the fact with good will, will follow Him, those who choose to lie convenient for them will go against Him, and will go against His commandments. Those who desire love, search love, be merciful, choose forgiveness, and those who choose hatred will search revenge. There will be a divided between both, forcing the final choice to be made, to stand for Jesus or against him.
The peace of Jesus intended for his disciples is interior peace, independent of situation, circumstances, the peace of the kid of God, who trusts his Father without boundless, the peace of pure heart, the peace of forgiveness. That's the kind of peace the planet can't give.
During the general audience on April 13, this year, a period and a half after Russian aggression against Ukraine, Holy Father Francis He commented on the passage of the Gospel of John mentioned above (John 14: 27): “Not as the planet gives, I give you.” These are 2 different ways – the way the planet gives us peace, and the way God gives us peace. They're different. The peace Jesus gives us during the Passover is not a peace consistent with the strategies of the world, which he believes can be achieved by force, conquest, and various forms of imposition. specified peace in fact is just a gap between wars – we know that. Peace of the Lord comes the way of gentleness and the cross – it is taking work for others [...] His peace is not the fruit of any compromise, but is born of a gift of his own. This gentle and courageous peace, however, is hard to accept. In fact, the crowd who praised Jesus (when he rode on a donkey into Jerusalem) is the same 1 who cried out a fewer days later: “Crucify Him”[...] Jesus' peace is not superior to others, it is never an armed peace—never! The defence in the Gospel is prayer, tenderness, forgiveness and unselfish love of neighbor, love of all neighbour That is how God’s peace is brought into the world. Thus, all aggression in these days, as well as all another war, is the insulting of God, the blasphemous betrayal of the Lord of the Passover, the putting before his gentle face the face of the false god of this world. War is always a human action to bring poorness to power."
The planet will tell us, frequently citing God and calling upon His Name, that we will gain peace through war, so it has been since the beginning of Christianity and besides in the 20th century that it has given us painful evidence: the mass extermination by the Nazis in concentration camps, crematoria with the slogan “Gott mit uns”; the massacre by Ukrainian nationalists of the Polish civilian population in Volyn and east Małopolska with the ordination of execution tools and prayers to “the eternal parent of Ukraine” and “the spirit of the eternal element”; the spiritual struggles in Northern Ireland; the fratricidal slaughter between Bosnians and Serbs; the crimes of Taliban and muslim terrorists, carried out “in the name of Allah”.
Nothing has changed, due to the fact that today, too, in this fratricidal war going on behind the city, it is repeated with ambon and by the heads of states on the 1 hand, Russian “God is us”, and on the another hand, Ukrainian side: “Slava Urodini, from Nama Boh”. It is easier to realize what peace is erstwhile people of peace meet in their way, looking at them, listening to them, being with them. In fresh years, I have been given the chance to meet and spend any time among extraordinary people, the people of Jesus' peace, the peace of which is the origin of God's trust and forgiveness experienced years ago by terrible wrongs. erstwhile they were 5, 10, 15 years old, they miraculously saved themselves from the slaughter, hidden in the bushes, in the barn, in the attic. They frequently saw their parents, their siblings, their grandparents. They heard the screams of cruelly murdered, saw the closest ones dying in terrible torment (it happens that to this day these images and screams return in night visions). Then, for years, they fought to stand by Christ, for freedom from hatred and unforgivableness. They leave in peace, free. They were helped by years of prayer for God’s mercy and human forgiveness for the perpetrators of the crimes and those who could not defy the evil; that the sacrifice of the lives of their loved ones might contribute to the consent and common respect between all nations.
The people I'm talking about are the Kresovian, the miracle of endurance during the genocide in the Kresa, those who have forgiven, but they remember due to the fact that you can't forget, due to the fact that you can't forget, due to the fact that you can't forget. For years they have besides prayed for those who have survived, for the Ukrainian Righteous, saving Poles and helping them, for which they died or were persecuted. They ask that the good God reward their mercy, and that they become an example to the living, that their sacrifice may aid to enlighten the minds and hearts of their fellow countrymen, that they may be able to reject and condemn the criminal ideology Dmitry Doncova. They pray for the young generations of Poland and Ukraine, so that by rejecting lies, falsifying history, political manipulations and hatred they choose life in fact and peace. A prayer for truth...
But praying for the fact is not all. Dear Readers of “Polish Thoughts” know very well that the truth, besides for historical truth, must be fought, not with armed weapons, but with attitude and word. The fact must be preached especially at a time erstwhile the nation's crucial tragic events of past have been accompanied by a conspiracy of silence for decades, erstwhile historical fact is falsified or silenced for political reasons, erstwhile society is undergoing brainwashing operations, due to the fact that this is what large geopolitics require. Through the veil of forgetfulness increasingly, increasingly bolder – and despite the hidden censorship introduced in fresh months – there is simply a light of fact about genocide, carried out at the Borders by Ukrainian nationalists.
One of the latest commemorations of the victims of this crime is the Kraków branch of IPN Fr Józef Marecki's book “Misterium Inquitatis” a tribute paid to the clergy and spiritual of the Latin rite, murdered by Ukrainian nationalists from 1939 to 1945. It contains detailed biograms of Polish clergy, collected from all available sources today, who died only for being Poles, faithful to the Catholic Church of the Latin rite. As the author writes: “Everyone mentioned in the publication (... ) deserves to be a martyr of national affairs.”
To all Readers I want that the coming days, Christmas, fresh Year, and all the days of life that we inactive have, live in truth, in peace of heart, in close proximity to Jesus, following Him.
Maria Stankiewicz-Vladzimirov
Think Poland, No. 51-52 (18-25.2022)
