After weeks of attention on the Russian-Ukrainian border, I find myself holding my breath every time I open my phone or computer to search for any breaking news updates. With a Russian invasion under way, the military conflict is escalating too quickly for me to stay on top of the latest news.
I’m finding it hard to put into words what is going through my mind and heart. In some ways it all still seems so far away from my daily life: I can still walk around freely outside, meet up with friends, carry on my normal apostolic activities, and return to a warm house where I never lack food or any basic needs. On the other hand, I feel within me that something is different, that I can’t ignore what is going on in the world just because I am not experiencing any direct consequences (…yet).
And this isn’t even the only conflict currently plaguing our all too war torn world. Sure, it happens to be the one in which more countries are involved in some way or another, and as a consequence, it is the one with the most media coverage. But what about conflicts in other parts of the world…those other humanitarian crises that are ongoing with seemingly no end in sight?
All of these reflections have left me feeling helpless and powerless. What can I, a young consecrated American woman living in Rome, Italy, do to help? What has to change about my daily life because of my awareness of these realities? Can I really just keep living as I have been?
In the midst of these questions three little words have been resonating in my heart: peace starts here.
In today’s Gospel we read: “A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good, but an evil person out of a store of evil produces evil; for from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaks” (Lk 6:45).
Conflicts like the ones existing in our world today are not born overnight. They are a result of a series of choices, a chain of concrete actions, a terrifying and seemingly unstoppable domino effect. What needs changing in our world is not so much a certain ideology or political system – those come and go. It is from the heart that comes forth either good or evil. It is the human person that chooses how to employ the freedom given to him by his Creator. What needs changing – what needs constant conversion – is each single person’s heart.
And so I ask myself: What goodness is stored up in my heart? What evil is housed there instead? Do I harbor positive or negative thoughts about those around me, those with whom I live? Do I tend to carry grudges or have I learned to forgive? What is the “main ingredient” of the fullness of my heart from which my mouth speaks? In a word, do I cultivate peace within me and in my relationships?
Today I feel invited to allow peace to start with me, to make choices that create around me a peaceful environment characterized by dialogue, humility, and forgiveness. I don’t pretend that it will be easy or that I will be “successful”. I know too well my own selfish tendencies and the pride I carry within. But I have to start somewhere at some time and where better than here and now?
Just think, if each one of us takes this verse of the Gospel to heart and sincerely tries to store up goodness in order to sow goodness, how much more goodness would there be in the world as a result? It only takes the conversion of one heart and one concrete action to start a new domino effect…
Peace starts with me. It starts with you. Peace starts here.
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| May the peace of Christ reign in your hearts. Col 3:15 |
