Message of the Most Reverend Emmanuel Cabajar, C.Ss.R.D.D., Bishop of Pagadian City during the launching of the Government and Civil Society Dialogue held at Margarita Hall, Hotel Camila during the Mindanao Week of Peace Celebration with the theme: "Building Bridges of Peace for Our Peace Officers". Bishop Cabajar is the Co-Chariperson of the said dialogue spearheaded by the InterFaith for Solidarity and Peace, The Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Societies (CBCS) and the Ummah Fi Salam(UFS) ).

For many years now we have experienced the devaluation not only of the Peso but, sad to say, also of human life.  We see how mass media daily bombards us with sensationalized reports of innocent lives prematurely and violently wasted by plain murder, by extra-judicial and terrorist killings for vengeance or to advance an ideological cause. There is an appalling trend of abortion increase to solve difficult pregnancies.  We also know that millions are slowly but surely being led to death by sickness and by dehumanizing poverty.

We are aware of the exploitation of the poor who are gullible and easily lured and manipulated by organized crimes of illegal drug trafficking and gambling in which the young are more often the miserable victims.  Why the hospitals, why the developmental projects if life is cut off suddenly, prematurely, violently? The pervasiveness of violence deadens our hearts and consciences to human suffering.

Wittingly or unwittingly we lend our cooperation by uncritically accepting radio and television entertainment full of blood and death and by allowing ourselves to be saturated with images of violent warfare and of tribal or racial hatred.

Life is Sacred

Have we forgotten that life is sacred and that we are not allowed to kill innocent people? Has violence become the order of the day? Do we not understand that the more violence goes on the more vindictive it becomes? Do the defenders of life not believe that violence is never the solution and that they have a duty to avoid being pit into a situation where they will destroy life? Otherwise, instead of neutralizing the enemy of life they will only become life's enemy!.

A farmer wrote to Archbishop Romero of San Salvador: "We are tired of weapons and bullets. Our hunger is for justice, for food, for medicine, for education, and for effective programmes of fair development." Indeed our people in Zamboanga del Sur are tired of violence. What they hunger for is food and, even more than food, justice, peace and progress.

Can We Afford to be Silent?

Dear friends, can we be indiferrent and remain silent in face of all that? We often hear it said that the indifference of good people can be more shocking than the malice of evil-doers.

A Lutheran pastor spoke of his failure in Hitler's time: "When the Nazis came to get the Communists, I was silent. When they came to get the Socialists, I was silent. When they came to get the Catholics, I was silent. When they came to get the Jews, I was silent. And when they came to get me, there was no one left to speak."

Can we afford to wait till no one remains to speak out? As citizens and believers, can we afford to be uncommitted until we ourselves become direct victims? Does our faith not challenge us to respond and to act now? Let us work fior peace and justice! Peace is not idle pacifism but a radical committment to genuinely human causes. Peace is active and believes in the power of active non-violence.

Through peaceful, non-violent actions let us search for lasting solutions. Let us promote and work for genuine reconciliation based on truth and justice.  In promoting true and just reconstruction, we do not want to espouse quick, flashy impressions of solutions that merely serve as a palliative or as an ideological and political propaganda that will only leave us in deeper quagmire.  Lasting results may sometimes take time and require patience but come they will, if we are determined, if we are consistent, if we are persevering and sincere in our peace efforts.

Peace is an essential value in the teachings of all religious traditions and cultures. We see that in the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We see that in the the other major religions of Asia: Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism. All these religions are committed to peace. They are all committed to re-establish peace in the whole of creation that has been desecrated or lost by our selfishness and sinfulness.

Radical Conversion - Radical Change of Heart

Our different faiths call us to a radical conversion - a radical change of heart that is at the center of the call to peacemaking. A radical change of heart must reject the way of violence. It must believe in the power to attain peace through non-violence! The courage, power and hope of ordinary people can bring down walls without violence. They can restore freedom. They can even topple unjust, immoral, dictatorial leadership.

Remember EDSA, Remember the scenes of people confronting guns with rosaries and flowers! However, we may not need this drama in order to heed the call for peacemaking.

In our own creative way we can effectively work for justice and peace in our own families and communities. We can make initiatives to break down barriers of alienation and deceit, barriers of hatred and revenge, and create bonds of friendship and love in the family, in the school, in the PNP and the Armed Forces, among our researchers, workers, vendors, teachers, public officials and even among our pastors and spiritual leaders.

As believers we urge all citizens to be peacemakers respecting and loving everyone and ready to embrace even our enemies.

BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS, THEY WILL BE CALLED CHILDREN OF GOD.

 

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Title headings in bold are added by editor to highlight paragraph content.