Weapons Within Our Hearts
“Then he will judge between the nations and arbitrate between many peoples. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into sickles. Nation will not lift sword against nation no longer will they learn how to make war.” (Israel 2:4)
The statement quoted from this bible verse which is hanged outside the United Nations Headquarters reflects that peace is not only the desire of Israelists of the Old Testament era, it is also the hope of people in contemporary age.
People nowadays always talk about civilization and civilized acts, thus, peaceful means, rather than violence should be employed to solve conflicts. However, hatred and wars between nations and ethnics occur continuously. Numerous examples tell us peaceful day is a far far away dream which is almost impossible to achieve. This can be seen from the conflict in the Middle East, particularly between Israel and Palestine, the suicidal attack of extreme Muslims towards the West, the occupation of Iraq by U.S. in the name of destroying “the terrorists.” Recently, we witnessed the attack of Lebanon by Israel and the British airport chaos. All these lead to death and injury of innocent civilians.
Our world is facing different kinds of “terrorist” attack. Suicidal attack, of course, is frightening. Are white terrorism, racial and religious discrimination, suppressing freedom of speech and press arose from anti-terrorism equally frightening? Revenge, violence and war cannot solve problem indeed. They only carry on the conflicts, bringing never-ending hatred. In fact, many political leaders employed various kinds of obvious and subtle violence to reinforce the feeling of hatred in the name of patriotism, ignoring the freedom and lives of civilians.
Very often, we think that racial and religious conflicts are international problems, we are not the ones who create them and we cannot do much on that, thus, we don’t need to shoulder any responsibility. However, have we ever thought that we are creating and reinforcing violence and injustice intentionally? In her article “The Tridents Within,” American feminist Jeanne Clark notes that “trident and all future weapons of destruction can be stopped only when we look deeply enough within ourselves to discover that there are Tridents within us.” These weapons within us are those things which disrupt our right relationship with ourselves, with one another, with the earth and its creator.
Weapons within us originate from our inability to accept difference which gives rise to a desire of control. For many people, one way to treat difference is to make you like I am, or I will destroy you or neglect you, making you as someone non-exist or name you as an enemy. Once an enemy is created, I don’t need to suffer from the pain of struggling with differences within me. The differences is in you; good and evil, right and wrong is clear. Everything is in my control.
Such desire of control does not merely exist in the hands of strong powers, it also exists in each of us. We want to be winners in everything. Apart from political and economic arenas, this kind of desire and temptation occurs in the relationship between parents and children, friends, partners and even in our faith. For example, when we think that we are more holy and faithful, know more truth and do better than others, we may neglect, exclude or ignore those who are different from us.
On the other hand, submitting to reality, abandoning the power to bring change to the world and give it to the dominant powers is another kind of weapon within us. Some people believe that only heroes and leaders can bring hope. Such feeling of helplessness and hopelessness deter us from taking up responsibilities. It is this kind of submissiveness and passivity that give violence a chance to continue, leading us to see the harm that others bringing to us, but not seeing such attitudes may bring harm to others as well as ourselves.
Today, violence continues and expresses in various form. Before it occurs in the form of war, it grows and flourishes deep within us. As Christians who accept the gospel of the Son of Peace Jesus Christ, are we willing to examine the various kinds of weapons within us and see clearly? Are we willing to repent and become peacemakers? In view of the reality, the peace message of Isaiah is not easy to achieve in today’s world, but this is the hope of us.
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