What a Difference a Week Makes!

As I considered what I would write this week, I found myself resisting wanting to write about the war as we are bombarded with coverage about missiles, etc currently. We cannot ignore what is happening in the world either around us or at a distance from us as it all impacts on us directly or indirectly. The most immediate effect is the increase in fuel costs, which will hurt those who are already struggling to balance tight budgets. Many families in our country are worried about friends and relatives who are living in war torn places or who were in transit through the middle east when the war broke out. Many families living here, who are from middle eastern countries, may be in a situation of wondering if their relatives are alive or safe if communication has been cut.

The anxiety with which any of us live currently pales into insignificance compared with what was experienced by the many hundreds, if not thousands, on whom ballistics rained at the weekend. Their homes were destroyed, some of their loved ones disappeared below rubble and the skies above were lit up for all the wrong threatening reasons. The people in these regions have always lived with a fear of being at the centre of war and disruption and often with a fear of those who were charged with their political care.

One of the worst parts of the current situation is the fact that there is a very clear lack of world spirit and community where we are all one and responsible for one another! The United Nations and the international elders have done wonderful work in recent decades to increase the level of dialogue with all so that wars might be prevented. The difficulty about dialogue is that it is and always will be slow. Dialogue requires a quality of listening that goes against the self-centredness of a person or nation to really hear what the other person or nation is hearing or experiencing.

Effective dialogue takes times as it requires a change of mindset for both parties and a building of a fresh track on which to move together as the older tracks may be too narrow or weak. This has worked well in the north of our own country, even if it means that there will be a certain fragility evident while we move tenderly and carefully together. Such change requires humility and determination with genuine openness to the value of one another.

May those who have the power and skills bring the powers of the world together around a table that will lead to peace.

Cathy Burke
Catechist in the Lucan Partnership of Parishes