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September 21 is the United Nations International Day of Peace
The International Day of Peace is always timely. Unfortunately so. There is no end to wars and disputes between nations and between groups within them that claim lives, devastate peoples and impoverish nations. Peace is something everyone wants, but most wars start when one group or another tries to impose peace on their own terms. To build peace, you have to go back further and ask those who say they want peace what they are willing to do and what interests they are willing to sacrifice to build it. A test of their seriousness might be to ask what they are willing to do to support people destroyed by wars in which their own nations have been involved.
Most wars are fought to make peace, sometimes to enforce peace by winning the war, often to force an aggressive nation or group to agree to the terms on which peace can be built, and sometimes to assert control over the peace that will follow. The leaders of most nations describe themselves as peace-loving and their enemies as violent aggressors. In this lack of mutual trust, war is the natural result. Fear and suspicion drive nations to expand their armies and stacks of deadly weapons, increase their weapons manufacturing capabilities, recoup the cost by selling weapons to other nations and armed groups with which they are conveniently allied, and join in military adventures that their strong allies begin. .
The result for the unfortunate people who fall victim to this cycle is that they live in fear of war, are driven from their homes, become refugees on their own land or on another land, and are deprived of basic human rights. They are then excluded, and their need ignored, by the nations that participate in their destruction directly or through their representatives.
The cost of waging war is enormous, both directly to the people whose lives it takes or ruins and indirectly to the nations that participate in it. It multiplies mistrust and alienates the resources that could be better spent in establishing peace by helping impoverished peoples and healing the wounds of war. And it unites nations in fear as they seek allies against common and common enemies.
All this is the gloomy background of the International Day of Peace. As in so many international challenges, it suggests how important personal and community relationships are that are the pillars of national policies. The anger and suspicion we see when waging war is engendered in the violence of family relationships, the choice we make between hatred or understanding in our social media posts, the vituperation of political discourse, the ways in which it is they handle and learn fights on the playground. and how we handle frustration on the roads and in shopping malls. Peace begins in negotiating differences through apologies and reconciliation in personal relationships and in learning other forms of response in addition to lashing out.
At Jesuit Social Services, we are involved in helping vulnerable youth find ways to cope with the frustrations of daily life and build relationships in a peaceful and respectful way. This is a challenging task because it often runs counter to the early experience of youth violence and the role models that abound in our culture.
The International Day of Peace looks at the largest canvas possible. Peacemaking begins in the most intimate relationship and learning the simplest formulas: please, sorry, thank you.
Father Andrew Hamilton SJ writes for Jesuit Communications and Jesuit Social Services.
