{"id":2212,"date":"2014-01-01T08:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T00:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2212"},"modified":"2022-04-20T11:02:48","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T03:02:48","slug":"95-rwanda-and-the-world-day-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2212","title":{"rendered":"95. Rwanda and the World Day of Peace"},"content":{"rendered":"

Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it<\/em><\/span><\/strong>. [Psalm 34:14<\/span><\/a>]<\/p>\n

Today, on the\u00a0Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God<\/a>, the Catholic Church celebrates the World Day of Peace. Introduced in 1967 by\u00a0Paul VI<\/a>, it was originally inspired by John XXIII\u2019s encyclical\u00a0Pacem in Terris<\/a><\/em>. Today, Pope Francis\u2019 message is: “War is suicide for humanity.”<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a> <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

[L] The Gift of Peace<\/em><\/em>, by Joey A. Velasco. [M]\u00a0Pope Francis leads a vigil to pray for peace in Syria in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Sept. 7. [R]\u00a0San Francesco<\/em>, by Cigoli.<\/span><\/p>\n

To a first time visitor to Rwanda, this \u201cland of a thousand hills\u201d is a picture of scenic beauty, cleanliness and peace. But only recently, this beautiful land dominated headline news around the globe for atrocities and crimes against humanity. Her suffering during the 1994 genocide was an eye opener for world leaders as well as all people of conscience. The desperate human condition in genocide-wrecked Rwanda acutely mirrored the general human condition of sin, suffering, and death which qualifies the fallen humanity for urgent salvation. As we understand the Incarnation of the Christ as a long-awaited divine interruption to lift humanity out of its death-destined condition, our reflection on this day is captured by three images, amongst myriad other images, that we consider as participatory of this divine interruption.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. The Struggle for Peacekeeping<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Peacekeeping is more often than not a costly and thankless job.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

We need to pay tribute to the men and women from countries across the world who serve in UN peacekeeping operations. Those who have laid down their lives in lands far from their own in the service of peace shall be remembered as heroes. And member-nations of the UN must ceaselessly affirm their commitment to building a world free from the scourge of war and genocide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Understandably, placing blames on any quarters for peacekeeping failure is always controversial. Fear, without doubt, contributed to the expatriates abandoning Rwanda in the face of machete-brandishing militia mob. The American officials, with the costly Mogadishu fiasco fresh on their minds, refused to get involved, opting to abandon the Rwandans to their genocidal destruction. Their Ambassador to the UN and their army general in charge of a niggardly small UN peacekeeping force in Rwanda, spoke strongly at the time against the failure of their own government, when the mere presence of an army of 10,000 American soldiers could have averted the whole 1994 genocide. Failed channel of communication has been blamed; President Clinton has apologized for the American misreading of the situation. President Kagame has placed blames on the French and the Belgians. Peacekeeping is a struggle; the importance of its work cannot be over-emphasised.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. The Struggle to Give Peace and Reconciliation a Chance<\/span><\/p>\n

“An eye for an eye<\/em>, ” Mahatma Gandhi said, “only ends up making the whole world blind<\/em>.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Reconciliation and stability should be held up as model behaviour for all to emulate. The work of peace and reconciliation centres is painstaking and slow, but this struggle to give peace and reconciliation a chance in Rwanda is participatory in the divine interruption sorely needed in a land ravaged by war and genocide.<\/span><\/p>\n

Visitors to Rwanda cannot but be impressed by President Kagame\u2019s resolve, right from the time he returned to Rwanda and recaptured political control, to put a stop to the cycle of violence. Himself a Tutsi, it is impressive to say the least, how he participated in the divine interruption for peace, decreeing against retaliation and vengeance-killing and taking legal actions against even his own men for any breach of this decree. Wounds are long to heal. Peace is always a struggle; reconciliation is slow-moving. But all efforts on that road deserve serious support.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. The Struggle to Become a Person of Peace<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

All roads to peace begin with the difficult<\/em> struggle to become a person of peace.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The urge to hit back, to meet force with force, when innocent people are being killed, is one of the most difficult temptations to resist. Humanity seems infected by this deep “original” wound which manifests itself as an urge to \u201crespond in kind\u201d to violence and oppression. We seem so definitively wired for retaliation instead of turning the other cheek. Perhaps this is where Jesus calls those \u201cblessed\u201d who appreciate that when violence begins, the practice of love has been abandoned and rationality rejected. To be sure, the slaughter of the innocents in the world is always heart rending, but God chooses what is weak in the world to overcome the strong. Jesus on the cross shows us how God\u2019s strength is perfected in weakness. In The Gospel of Life<\/em>, John Paul II wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n