WAR: AREOPHAGUS OF TODAY

Death, destruction of buildings, roads, environment, poverty, hunger, hatred and revenge, these are only some of the awful results of war. In the course of history, man has been engaging to war. Man went to war during world war one, world war two, Vietnam War and so many civil wars. It is already twenty-first century and years have passed yet man has not learned his lesson. Man is still blinded with his selfish view. Man is still struggling to find solution.

Today, many wars are emerging. Some of these wars are the civil wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan. In the Philippine, there is also that war between the government and the MILF and NPA guerillas.

These wars may not be large in scope than that of the World War one and two but still they are wars. They are wars that kill thousands or millions of people. They are wars that destroy nature, structures and relationships. They are wars that create problems like poverty and hunger.

We can consider these wars as the “areophagus of yesterday and even today.” These are the events in the world in the past and still continue today that is shaking men off their feet. They are situations that men are trying to find solution in order to avoid the devastating results.

The question is, “do these wars, areophagus of today, have any solution?” Despite the losses that these wars inflicted, there is still a beacon of hope. There is still a ray of light that the wars in the world would end. How? In the book of Acts of the Apostles (Acts 17), offers us a solution to such areophagus.

Acts gave us four steps to solve such areophagus in the light of the methodology of the speech of St. Paul. First, the two parties involve in war should establish a rapport with each other. They should have a positive outlook towards the other in order to avoid war. If they will look at each other as a barrier then war would not end and all the more people would suffer and die because of selfishness.

Second, both parties should pinpoint a contact. There is nothing in their ideals that could never meet. They will always find one point that they would agree. All of us would agree on one thing and that is peace. Peace is what all of us would like to have in the end. Peace brings us the wellness of everyone. If only those people who are going to war would realize this similarity then everything could be talked about.

Third, they should deepen this contact. They should try to avoid citing differences but rather their similarities especially their vision of peace. Peace is what everyone wants. And they should direct their conversation with peace.

Lastly, they should direct everything that they do towards God. God is peace. We want peace and it is in God that we can achieve the ultimate peace that we want to have. It does not matter weather they are Christian, Muslim or Buddhist. They must look at the will of God and that is peace in everyone’s heart.

All of these things could be summarize by one word and that is “DIALOGUE.” It is in dialogue that everything and everyone would be connected. It is in dialogue that problems are resolve peacefully. IT IS IN DIALOGUE THAT WAR ENDS. If we envision a peaceful world to live in we must always give importance to dialogue for without dialogue, everything falls to chaos.