Building peace

LOGARTA

A few days ago, UP High School batch 1982 invited us to their celebration of 35 years since their graduation. Two of their classmates are with the armed forces and proudly said that they were “taking care of Mindanao.” So when martial law was declared in Mindanao, I felt a personal link to it. I felt I had to want and pray for the resolution of the issue more.

When they were my students, I had talked more about war than about peace, as my teacher Prof. Ed Garcia had said. Much of history talks about war and war heroes. History writing started with this, documentation of wars, and this is the reason women are invisible in much of early history writing.

Recently I have shifted to trying to understand war so that we can learn to build peace. It was gender studies, Prof. Ed Garcia and Our Lady of Joy Learning Center’s stress on living values that started this change.

So when I encountered “Meme na O Mindanao” a poem by Albert Alejo with a music video, I was touched, even haunted. “Ssh! Ayaw mo pagsaba/ Mapukaw ang bata!/ Ssshhh ayaw na mo pag-away/Ang bata madamay! (Hush don’t be noisy! You might disturb the child asleep!/ Hush! Stop all this fighting/ You might also hit the child!)

This underlines the fact that children and women suffer the most in an armed conflict. Many of the scenes from Marawi expose the mothers desperately clutching their children running to bring them away from harm. In evacuation, they are saddened by the discomfort to which their children are exposed.

“Damguhon mo ang kalinaw/ sa umaabot nga mga adlaw/ Ugma puhon makalakaw/Ngadto sa wala na’y mingaw. (Dream dream of peace/ In the coming days/ Tomorrow, who knows, you can walk/ To where there are no more tears.) This hopeful note reminds me of the conversation of two women during the wake of Jesse Robredo.

They admired his earnestness in working for Mindanao; he bore all the discomforts this would bring.

They ended saying, the resolution of the problems of Mindanao would actually bring prosperity. Indigenous groups have been intensely aware that it is conditions that will provide wholeness among the people in communities that will give rise to contentment and serenity among human beings in our “Land of Promise.”

In the spirit of searching for ways towards peace, we listened to UP High School alumnus Ashley Acedillo discuss the Marawi conflict. So we learned the cause of the attraction of people to “terrorist groups.”

He pointed out that in Southeast Asia the pattern is clearly seen: the areas where they flourished were areas of poverty and limited development.

It seems that those attracted to join were between the ages of 19 and 24. Ashley was saddened that our families and communities apparently had failed to reach out to young people and inspire their positive commitment. My co-teacher Lissa G. Lapa reminded me that in high school Ashley had been very interested in current events; even as early as second year he had been a winner in the Most Well-Informed UP High School Quiz Bowl.

Now he has made news and attempts to shape it!

So I prepare for the school year, looking for ways to give rise to peace in young hearts. Innerspace had gifted me with “Becoming and Being Peacemakers How You Can Bring Peace to the World.”

In its introduction it declares: “We are each a potential ‘peacemaker’ in the worlds of our homes and offices, as well as the wider world itself … amidst the daily challenges of a turbulent world, it’s also easy to lose our awareness and connection with what is our greatest inner resource.”

Four steps are described to start the journey of “Bringing Peace Back to Life.” First is “Being at Peace with Yourself.” We need to arrive at the “realization that peace is your true underlying and eternal nature. The method to reawaken this awareness is the oldest in the world, otherwise known as meditation.”

Second is “Being at Peace with Others.” We have forgotten “that true love does not want for anything or take from anyone, it only gives and shares of itself. We forget that love is, in essence, what we are. So we need to “Listen closely to the heart of others.”

“Help them clarify what is really going on in their heart. As you do, you create a ‘real connection’ without judgement. As you do, they are able to hear themselves and see for themselves, with greater clarity, what they are really thinking and feeling.”

Third we have peace with the world by being aware that “there are no borders or boundaries … in reality.” Getting rid of old mental habits stressing separation and differences, we can arrive at “a natural calm serenity.”

Fourth is “Being at Peace with the Creator.” To accomplish the earlier steps, it is very helpful “to stay open to a subtle source, a divine source of energy, in the forms of love, light and power.”

As we watch events in Marawi, in Mindanao, we sing and celebrate Mary, Our Queen of Peace.