The Jamaica Council of Churches’ Message
International Day of Prayer for Peace, 2012
“PRAYING FOR
CEASEFIRE”
Friday, 21 September 2012 is
dedicated as International Day of Prayer for Peace as proposed by the United
Nations. The theme this year is “Praying
for Ceasefire,” a most relevant theme when one listens to reports of the many
never-ending conflicts that take place in several parts of the world at varying
scales: Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, parts of Nigeria (Christian/Moslem
conflicts),and in our own native land, Jamaica.
Would that there could be a universal ceasefire so that true patriotism
and rational thinking could prevail and gain centre stage long enough for us to
realize that peace is our ultimate aim and the means to true happiness.
In his Letter to the Philippians,
the Apostle Paul appeals to two members of that Christian community to come to
some amicable agreement. Their aim ought
to be the acquisition of that “peace of God that surpasses all understanding,”
and which will regulate “their hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus.” Paul reminds them (and us) that peace is a
gift from God—a given in the first instance—but which we must work to maintain
by being positive and by filling our minds with “everything that is good and
pure, everything that we love and honour, and everything that can be virtuous
or worthy of praise.” He then concludes:
“Then the God of peace will be with you” [cf. Phil.4: 2-9].
Clearly, it is not just a matter
of praying for a ceasefire that will bring about God’s peace, but it also
entails the application of self in terms of intentionally fostering those
attitudes and values whose aim is to bring about just and wholesome
relationships that result in a sense of oneness within one’s own being. It is that sense of oneness from within that
transforms broken families and ultimately radiates throughout our immediate
communities, as well as our churches and the nation. It is that very sense of
oneness for which we Jamaicans yearn that will bring about a reduction in
rabid, divisive partisan political behaviour which impedes a unity of purpose
for the good of country and productivity. It is that oneness for which we dream
that will eradicate gang warfare which results in senseless murders, mayhem,
abuses and rapes.
In other words, the ceasefire we
desire in our world and nation—and God knows we need it—has a marvelous
correlation with the spiritual and emotional “ceasefire” that we allow God to
effect in us through his Spirit. Peace is God’s gift, but as collaborators with
God, we pay heed to Christ’s call to happiness: “Happy are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called children of God” [Matt 5:9]. Let the Prayer of St. Francis reverberate in
our very being in this quest for a ceasefire:
Lord,
make me an instrument of your peace,
Where
there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where
there is injury, pardon;
Where
there is doubt, faith;
Where
there is despair, hope;
And
where there is darkness, light.
+Donald
J. Reece (Roman Catholic Archbishop Emeritus)
President,
Jamaica Council of Churches
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