WORK FOR PEACE
Working for peace is an invitation to come out of indifference to become builders of harmony, starting with ourselves and around us, mobilizing intelligence, heart and arms.
It requires a commitment to care for others, to heal personal and social wounds and traumas caused by the selfishness that divides, to invest all efforts in achieving peace.
We too can transform each day into a “Day of Peace”, putting an end to the small or large wars that are fought daily around us. To make this dream come true, it is important to build networks of friendship and solidarity, to reach out to offer help, but also to accept it.
As Denise and Alessandro tell us: When we met, we liked to be together. We got married and the beginning was very beautiful, also because of the birth of the children. As time passed, the ups and downs began. There was no longer any form of dialogue between us, but every little thing was the subject of continual discussion. We decided to stay together, but we kept falling into the same mistakes, resentments and disagreements. One day, a couple of friends suggested that we participate in a support course for couples in difficulty. 1 We found not only competent and prepared people, but also a “family of families” with whom we shared our problems. We were no longer alone! A light came back on, but it was only the first step. Coming home was not easy and from time to time we still fall. What helps us is to dedicate ourselves to each other, with the commitment to start over and stay in touch with these new friends, to continue together.
Peace, [...], as Chiara Lubich says, demands from us a new heart and eyes to love and see in each person a candidate for universal fraternity. And she adds: We can ask, “Even the quarrelsome neighbors? Also in co-workers who try to impede my professional growth? Also in the militants of a different party or of an opposing football team? Also in people of a different religion or nationality than mine?”
Yes, they are all my brothers and sisters. Peace begins right here, in the relationship I know how to establish with each one of my neighbors. “Evil is born from the heart of man”, wrote Igino Giordani, and “to remove the danger of war it is necessary to remove the spirit of aggression and exploitation and selfishness from which war comes: it is necessary to rebuild a conscience”.
[...] The world changes if we change ourselves. [...] Above all, by highlighting what unites us, we will be able to contribute to creating a mentality of peace and working together for the good of humanity. [...] In the end, it is love that wins, because it is stronger than anything. Let us try to live like this month, to be the leaven of a new culture of peace and justice. We will see a new humanity reborn in us and around us. 3
1 Cf. 10 years of “Percursos de luz” in https://www.focolare.org/famiglienuove
2 I. Giordani, L’inutilità della guerra, Roma 20032, p. 111.
3 LUBICH, Chiara. The peace that is fraternity. Word of Life, January 2004.
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THE IDEA OF THE MONTH, based on texts by Letizia Magri, emerged in Uruguay in the context of dialogue with people of different religious and non-religious convictions whose motto is “building dialogue”. The purpose of this publication is to contribute to promoting the ideal of universal brotherhood. Today IDEA OF THE MONTH is translated into twelve languages and distributed in more than 25 countries.
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