The Quest for Sustainable Peace x

THERE IS NO OTHER TIME in human history where the need for peace is greater than our present time.
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With the passing of the last century, we have seen the great tumult brought about by three global wars - the First, Second and the Cold War.

It must not be lost to our humanity that a war that is global in scope is a significant evolution in the nature of warfare.

For war and its paradigm run parallel in their course. War and its outbreaks in our world being determined both by the actual viability of waging war and the will to make war is indicative of the relationship between war and its paradigm.

The paradigm that exists today in our world is one of war.

And this paradigm is prevalent not only in terms of the conflicts that plague our nations, this paradigm is now present also in our societies, in our markets and even in our places of worship - the one place where war should have no footing, it has entered.

Thus, because the paradigm of war is an absolute whole, peace can be said to be both under appreciated and misunderstood.

To understand war as a paradigm whole, we must return to our roots. To understand peace as a paradigm whole, we must awaken to the eternal destiny of our nations.

If we are to include spiritual considerations with regards to war as a paradigm whole, it would be more sobering. But since I should like to make this a secular statement, I thought not to include it in this post.

For the reality of the times and the obvious trending of these things are indicative enough of the consequences to make the choice for peace, a very reasonable one.

With the passing of the last millennium, after 2000 years of dwelling with war, we must complete our remembrances and bring our hopes forward for the favorable season for peace is now.

At the waning of the Industrial age, there are yet problems that exist in our world that belong to that age, problems which shall prevent or preclude what benefits our world stand to reap from this Information age as well as understand more closely the challenges that await us which are proper to this age.

But the siege of war must be lifted even before our nations shall have the capacity to effectively address these problems.

We are nations because our responsibility to our world and to each other require us to dwell in the strength of our human communities. And we shall take this responsibility with us in this life and, if I may, in the one that is to come.

Our human habitation is not just this inhabited earth, it is the reality that includes both spirit and earth, body and soul, for thus were we created, only thus can all things truly human be effectively understood.

Human reality is our habitation - our one visible universe and those universes within every human being. Our habitation, like ourselves, forms a one, indivisible whole. Therefore, there is nothing truly human that can be divided - much less the earth.

It is material possession not the truth that is relative. This is not to say that we should not practice prudence in our finances, but above all things, we should ever be mindful that our ultimate belonging is to each other.

True and lasting human happiness, in all realities, can only be achieved as a common destiny. And this destiny can never be won by ends that are purely material, entirely selfish, self-serving or willfully evil.

Our nations with our responsible states respect borders not because our reality is divided but because this responsibility must be shared by all nations. Nor does human responsibility end at every limit of a nation-state's sphere of influence. In fact, if I may, our human responsibility stretches on into eternity.

Our responsible stewardship of creation requires mankind, in all our generations, to be thus arrayed - as nations. Indeed, our nations, albeit imperfect, were meant for more noble and worthwhile purposes than breeding grounds for those conflicts which in the end shall defeat the cause for which they were at the autumnal dusk of our faded Eden established - to prosper the peace.

The paradigm of war makes meaningful the lie that war can ever be good - all war is evil - only human beings can obtain the grace to be good, no war is just, but there are just people who fight in them. It preys on other truths to gain a footing in the human soul which shall otherwise perceive as incomprehensible the meaningless lie which is its true substance.

Neither war nor its agents, seen or unseen, can ever be good - for war involves the willful taking away of human life, the destruction of created things, the annihilation of entire nations - the very definition of evil.

The spirit of war revels in meaningless opposition, division, deception, discord and blind hatred - everything that is foreign to our original human belongings both as nations and as individuals. It mires the people in despair and poverty.

For even our nations shall fail to take their flight if their spirit is afflicted by the descendant gravity of war.

There will be conflict, for we live in an imperfect reality, but it shall not have to bear any more significant a weight as to reduce any nation-state's capacity to provide for itself, advance the common good, make provisions to better aid other nation-states and secure the peace that shall help mature its own sheltering wings and prosper all the generations of life.

And that is not to say that we will not employ military force. For defense is the duty not only of every human individual but the angels of our LORD, and God Himself are also committed to this cause.

But no defense can ever survive if it arrives last and does not hold the ground. For all defense must be fought from grounds that are understood and held by the line of the defense. And defense that is certain of its own truth; ordered, organized, lawful and arrayed as thus, being noble in spirit.

And peace as a one paradigm whole is the grounds by which this defense shall be undertaken.

We must quest for sustainable peace in our world. Drive back the darkness of war and make room for a better, more worthwhile, albeit imperfect world for all the nations of our one family of the nations of mankind.

Our humanity must become alert to the fact that the generations that are to come after us depend on us today.

Their song must not remain unsung.

This is our fight, our longest night.
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Prosper the Peace. Prosper the People.

Sancta Sanctis!

Glory to God in the highest
Adoration to Jesus Christ
Peace to men of good will.