Jesus came into the world to bring peace,
to bring all people together into one body
wherein each person has a place.
But we human beings have turned our world into a place
of competition, rivalry, conflict and war
between races, religions, social classes and countries.
The world has become a place in which each person feels they
have to protect and defend themselves, their own family, their
own country, their own class, their own religion.
Nuclear weapons, missiles and machine guns
are the outer, visible signs
of our inner, invisible, personal weapons.
These we bring out as soon as we feel threatened, humiliated and rejected,
or we feel we are not given our rightful space;
our rightful place. . . .
For if we human beings are violent,
it is mainly because we are so vulnerable.
Violence is a response to a wounded heart
when it feels misunderstood, rejected, unloved.
As soon as we feel the slightest rejection,
the wound reopens and our defense mechanisms rise up.