The cost of peace

War and peace come at a cost. As regards the former, the statement is too obvious for stressing. However, as regards peace, we tend to think that it "just happens". We tend to ignore its fragility. This makes the word of Christ "blessed are the peacemakers" - and not simply those who have it - an extraordinarily relevant message. Because peace is not simply the absence of war, but the actualisation of a "harmonious coexistence of individual citizens within a society governed by justice, one in which the good is also achieved, to the extent possible, for each of them." (Benedict VI).

In 1997, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan reiterated this concept. He said that "peace is increasingly understood not just in military terms, and not just as the absence of conflict, but as a phenomenon encompassing economic development, social justice, environmental protection, democratisation, disarmament and respect for human rights. These pillars of peace are inter-related and mutually reinforcing. Building peace and combating threats to peace in an interdependent world requires the full participation of every citizen, every nation, and every continent." However, the concept is not at all new. It is found in the Scriptures.

It is almost four decades ago, on New Year's Day of 1968, that the Catholic world starting celebrating the World Day of Peace. It was Pope Paul VI's desire that "this celebration take place each year as a sign of hope and promise... in order that Peace, with its just and salutary equilibrium, will dominate the unfolding of history yet to come".

The 20th century has witnessed a number of wars which no other century in history has witnessed, including two devastating world wars. Almost 40 million soldiers died in these wars, nearly three quarters of them in the two world wars. Not only was World War II the bloodiest conflict in human history, it was probably more costly than the three previous wars combined. The number of civilian deaths is too long to count! No wonder Pope Benedict XV (1914-22) had referred to war as a "useless slaughter''! One can repeat the words of French prime minister Georges Clemenceau: "I don't know whether war is an interlude during peace, or peace an interlude during war."

The 21st century - in its minuscule lifespan so far - has already shown that the millenarian stance at the turn of the century was not more than a chimera. We have inherited the evil philosophy of conflict and inhumanity of the 20th century. The atrocities of Saddam Hussein and obscenities committed at Abu Ghraib prison are a vivid testimony of this. The world's two greatest civilisations, the Judeo-Christian and Islam, have been contaminated with these evil philosophies in the reasoning and motives of certain states, nations, and individuals who pursue their own economic and political gain.

Peace was lost by sin and it is regained only at a cost. And it might be very high. Before leaving the US, in a letter to Reinhold Niebuhr, the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that he would have no right "to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people... Christians in Germany will face the terrible alternative of either willing the defeat of their nation in order that Christian civilisation may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying our civilisation."

Pope Benedict's message for this year fits well into this logic. The theme chosen for this year's reflection - In truth, peace - expresses the conviction that wherever and whenever men and women are enlightened by the splendour of truth, they naturally set out on the path of peace. Pope John XXIII identified the pillars of peace as truth, justice, freedom and love.

Bonhoeffer maintains that the followers of Christ are called to peace. However, to this end they must be ready not only to denounce but, first of all, "to renounce all violence and tumult". Christ's disciples keep peace "by choosing to endure suffering rather than inflict it on other". This is what makes the position of the so-called "Christian Right" untenable! Bonhoeffer gives a theological reason for all this: "The peacemakers will carry the cross of their Lord; for it was on the cross that peace was made. Now that they are partners of Christ's work of reconciliation, they are called the sons of God as He is the Son of God".

Hence, Christians have to pay personally and institutionally for the making of peace. In our country, Pope Benedict's message of peacemaking "in truth" is very relevant to our country. In my view, much of the social, political and economic malaise which we are experiencing in our nation is the result of untruth. Hence, as the Pope argues "any authentic search for peace must begin with the realisation that the problem of truth and untruth is the concern of every man and woman; it is decisive for the peaceful future of our planet" - allow to say of our country too!

Quite often, divisiveness is promoted under the guise of difference, antagonism under the guise of disagreement! We can never approach the truth - and therefore peace - as long as we continue to demonise our opponents or enemies. We should stop considering disloyal those who question or oppose "party line".

These principles are valid both for local and for international consumption. The United States and Britain invaded Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction and found only weapons of mass deception among their own ranks! How right Cicero was in his claim that "laws are silent in times of war"! Nor did the demonisation of Saddam Hussein - one of the greatest rogues in contemporary history - succeed in uniting the people of Iraq.

The bipolar world of the past superpowers should not be substituted by a unipolar world order. In a sense, the world system is still bipolar; not in an ideological sense but in an economic, societal and developmental divide. We are witnessing one pole at the summit of the global community, "secure in its self-proclaimed legitimacy", while the other pole picks the crumbs that fall from the table of a self-serving world order. Thank God that the International Monetary Fund has started something tangible in the last few days.

Politically hued media do not make Malta a more peaceful land when they give a jaundiced view of the political and economic situation. Nor is the far Right enhancing our civic and patriotic conscience.

If we want peace let us, rather than prepare for war, search for the truth. The pursuit of truth, with its trials and its errors, its successes and its setbacks, can never be relaxed and never abandoned. It is truly the costly path to peace.