CHRISTIANITY IS A RELIGION OF PEACE

     

A crisis forces you to become clear about your thinking. It is a course correction. 

 

As of Monday (nineteen days into the invasion of the Ukraine) we have been pushed to examine where our religious faith takes us. Does our religious teaching support this invasion/attempted take-over or does it name it as evil? What does our Christian religion say about war? 

 

With our European background we do not have a strong position to condemn warfare. When you look through the two thousand years of Christianity in Europe you add up countless numbers of wars, you may come to the conclusion that Christianity is a fellow warrior in warmaking . Often these wars were fought in the name of God! If we are honest, we have much to repent in our war making through the centuries.

 

How can you speak of peace when your history is soaked with blood?

 

The last two world wars and all the atrocities that were committed through these wars make it clear that we must never have war again. As one commentator observed: if you thought the millions that were killed, starved or displaced by disease was bad in the past world wars, try to imagine how many people will lose their lives if there is a third world war!

 

Christianity has always had a difficult time justifying war. Way back in the fifth century we had the great Augustine articulate the ‘just war’ theory. His theory gave the reasons you could justify entering a war. But after the nuclear bombs of the Second World War and the incredible power of today’s weapons to kill and destroy it is very difficult to justify ever making war. The consequences of war rejects any justification for war-making.

 

The first thing we must do is repent of all the lives lost that our wars have caused through bombing, tolerating conditions for starvation, and destruction of farms (food production) and factories, schools and hospitals (peoples’ livelihoods). Our ancestors have handed us a black and destructive legacy. Our repentance is soaked in incredible human suffering.

 

Our Christian faith moves us to work and build a more just world where the benefits of civilization are shared by all. Fighting so often begins because one group oppresses and exploits another group. The people on the bottom rise up in anger when they are kept down. Every conflict/war is rooted in oppression and exploitation. Remember the words of Pope John Paul II, “If you want peace, work for justice.”

 

This is where I receive energy. When there is evil around me or in the world, I am called upon to plant goodness, justice and respect. The small daily actions of respecting every human being that I come into contact with today as an equal is an effort to plant justice. 

 

And then in my daily prayer I find great encouragement from the Holy Spirit to plant peace and healing to our broken world. During the invasion of the Ukraine I place my morning prayer beside all the people fleeing the violence and all the people helping the refugees. 

 

My religious faith gives me strong courage in the time of insane suffering. I am supported by the wonderful insight about what I can do to change this situation into goodness by the insight: “Better to light one candle than to ever curse the darkness.”