A farmer’s contribution to peace

Asked what can he contribute or sacrifice for peace, a Muslim farmer in Lanao del Sur replied: “I will think about peace for ten minutes.” This happened in 2009 when the Bishops-Ulama Conference (BUC) consulted more than 5000 individuals throughout Mindanao on the peace process. BUC created Konsult Mindanao group of academicians from Catholic, Muslim and Protestant universities to do the consultations.

How can a thought on peace bring about peace? Our faith teaches that any positive thought by anybody always comes from the Holy Spirit. It is a grace and a spiritual energy. When the thinking stops the energy is not lost. Why so?

Because He works as He wills, when He wills and where He wills, the Holy Spirit keeps these thoughts together. In due time like the parable of the small mustard seed these peace thoughts become peace words, then peace actions, and finally big peace movements that erupt spontaneously without anyone other than the Spirit coordinating them.

One such example is the EDSA People Power peaceful revolution. Another is the Fall of the Berlin Wall. And many others in human history.

To us Christians, a peace thought is part of a desire for change, transformation. Human life and nature’s life always happen in terms of transition, as from death to life, from dark to light, from weakness to strength, from slavery to freedom, from break-up to union, from separation to communion. Why so?

Because Christ’s resurrection, in Pope Francis’s words “contains a vital power which has permeated the world” (Evangelii Gaudium, n. 276).

This is the reason why to some Asian theologians our Lord Jesus is the Cosmic Christ! That Maranao Muslim farmer is within that resurrection-permeated world.