How Can I Make Peace Come Alive in My World?

By Angeline Clarisse Pasinabo

Grade 9 – St Augustine, La Consolacion College - Integrated School, Bacolod City

Peace is defined as the absence of war or hostilities. It is something that is needed but cannot still be attained until now. It is essential in our world today in establishing a safe and secured community where we could live in harmony together. It is a vital ingredient for a nation to become productive and progressive.

I believe that the first thing for me to do in order to make peace come alive in my world is to have peace of mind.

Having peace of mind is the most difficult, even the last thing, that a man will ever achieve in his life given the present times when everything seems so uncertain. Greed and lust for power are seemingly present everywhere. How will I ever have peace of mind, when I am living in a society wherein everybody loves a winner and losers are generally not accepted? I am in a world where failing is not an option and definitely condemned. Nobody would want to commit mistakes because the people who make mistakes are being punished regardless whether or not they are intentional. It is as if life is made up of winners and losers alone and there exists no middle ground. Despite the fact we actually learn from our mistakes, we are being punished for committing the same. Thus, I believe, I have to prepare myself for the consequences of failing and committing mistakes so I may be able to erase apprehensions and anxieties that beset my mind about the uncertain future. I must be ready for people who will mock my failures and ridicule me for my mistakes. I should not expect that they will praise me for trying and failing even though to try and fail is better than not trying at all. Further, I should be ready to take full responsibility for my mistakes as I am willing to take the accolades for my success.

The next thing in achieving peace is that it should start within us and towards others. As the saying of Tenzin Gyatso goes, ‘If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another’. He states that to achieve peace we must be willing to give peace to others, not just by ending conflicts but also coping with all the chaos that is happening all around us. We cannot afford to be just sideline spectators and watch the world fall. We must do something to see that the world is in order. The purpose of the Lord is that he wanted us to live together in accord and peace and not thinking of how we look like and of how diversely we all think of life.

An anonymous writer once quoted on peace said, ‘Peace – it does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. It means to be in a midst of those things and still be calm in your heart’. The writer meant that peace can be seen in many ways. It can be experienced in a lot of ways, too. The only thing that we should know is that we must follow the way of peace. We must abandon hatred and evil. We must learn to forgive others regardless of the intensity of the sin. Holding back on forgiving hinders us from attaining the true essence of harmony.  If peace is not present in our minds and souls, it is no use to have life. To be alive gives the perspective of freedom and liberty. And true freedom can never be achieved without peace. After all, we were created by God through love.

Further, nothing happens in this world without a cause and reason to behold but to make peace come alive in my world, I dare to rail, for the true measure of one’s success is not in the number of distinctions and rewards one has earned nor on how much wealth one has amassed during one’s lifetime, but on how one has carried the fight to the end in the midst of all adversities. Failures should not be taken as a stumbling block but as a stepping stone to success.

Above all, living at peace with the Lord as the center of my life, I find the true meaning of my existence. For whatever I do, I do it for the greater glory of God.