Our Task Force Commander, fellow Officers, Enlisted Personnel, Ladies and Gentlemen Good Morning! I am task to give you the “Dagdag Kaalaman” this morning and it is entitled “Peace” kung sa ato pa “kalinaw”.
I choose this topic because the very nature of our job here in Task Force Davao and as soldiers is that of peace making, to make peace so that the people of Davao City might live in peace. Another reason I choose this topic was that, I thought this was very simple and a very short topic to discuss.
But I was wrong. When I research on it in the internet, I found it to be a complicated topic. No wonder lasting peace is still very elusive today. As I research further, I was brought to a very long journey that spans an almost 2,000 years back in history. I ended up tracing the ideas and practice of peace in the Catholic Church from its biblical and classical origins into the 21st century.
This catholic tradition, because of its long history and breadth of geographical and cultural diversity, encompasses many strains and influences of both religious and secular peacemaking and many aspects of the traditions of christian pacifism, just war and nonviolence.
But you need not worry, I will not be discussing to you the very long tradition of catholic peacemaking in the sense that perhaps even one day would not be enough.
I will just be defining what the word “peace” means today for us, and what it has meant in the past. Peace means a great many things, depending on the context and, very often, the user. I will therefore just mention modern dictionary definitions.
The most obvious place to begin this examination of meanings is with the standard english dictionaries. While not often consciously used, these contain all the denotations and connotations of the word that we are likely to find. These vary from the external meanings of peace as “freedom from” or “absence of” war or strife, to the common meanings of tranquility or relaxation.
The second group of meanings is internal and individual: freedom from emotional upset, a positive feeling of ease, lack of worry, a “peace of mind.”
A third grouping of meanings is the social or political, the harmony of those working together, a sense of community and cooperation within a community or society, or a state of cooperation between states, as expressed in a “peace” treaty.
Often, however, societal peace is defined as “law and order “or a quiet imposed from the top down with no reference to the efforts of the members of a society. Peace as order has had a long life stretching back from the American west, where a sheriff and his weapon were “peacemakers“ to its roots in the western political tradition of the pax romana and st. Augustine’s “tranquility of order.”
Also, there remain the religious meanings of peace, as in the New Catholic Encyclopedia, where peace also has internal and external meanings, but where these meanings are tied to positive virtues, such as love, and to the personal and social works of justice.
The English definitions of peace make so little mention of peace as a dynamic force for good or for change, as a nurturing and creative force or state.
Peace as justice is mentioned only in a religious context. The term “pacifism,” which came into existence only in the late nineteenth century — among the elite opponents of religious peacemaking — is defined as opposition to war or nonresistance, that is, as passivity.
Finally, let me take you to what the term peace is all about, from the perspective of two venerable persons. The first one was known in the whole world for her holiness and extra ordinary charity as she was known to be a living saint during her life time. According to mother Theresa of Calcutta and I quote “if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other” unquote.
How true! If all people will only realize that we belong to each other as bothers and live up to it, I think, there will be harmony. There will be no more crimes of whatsoever; perhaps even poverty will be eradicated because social justice will reign.
That is according to mother Theresa “if we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other”
On the other hand, in his Christmas message last December, Archbishop Fernando Capalla of Davao City elucidated that peace comes from order. According to him peace is a result of order. Ingon siya, kung dunay kahusay naay kalinaw. If there is order there is peace. Peace and order always go together.
How true, also! Experience tells us that if there is order whether at the work place or at our homes and even within us, there is peace. If there order there is peace. Peacemaking is actually putting things in order.
If we have peace of mind, we tend to radiate peace to others.
To end with my Dagdag Kaalaman, let me read to you the words from the giver of peace. In chapter 14: 27 of the Gospel according to St John, Jesus said to his disciples “peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.
With that maayong buntag kanatong tanan! Good morning to everyone! - 1LT ARVIN A PEDROSA
