Linggo, Setyembre 21, 2025

UNARMED STRUGGLE AND DISARMING PEACE

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What a joy it was to take part in the recently concluded 27th Annual Convention of my colleagues in the Catholic Biblical Association of the Philippines (CBAP), held at the Philippine Bible Society. It was especially heartwarming to have in our company fellow biblical scholars from Protestant and Evangelical churches, sharing in our common love for the Scriptures and our commitment to making the Word of God speak meaningfully to the world today.

The theme of our convention was “Beat Swords into Plowshares. Be Peacemakers.” I delivered a keynote on the topic “Unarmed Struggle and Disarming Peace: Pope Leo XIV’s Biblical Theology of Peace.”

I began by recalling my youthful activist years, when I found the argument for armed struggle morally compelling in societies where the poor suffered violence through oppression, exploitation and systemic injustice. I have never ceased to believe that poverty itself can be a form of violence. But history has also taught me to ask: What happens when the oppressed finally acquire the gun? How do we prevent yesterday’s slaves from becoming tomorrow’s tyrants?

Drawing from Isaiah’s vision of swords being transformed into plowshares, I reflected on the alarming return of the logic of power and rearmament in our world today. Resources that could sustain life through food security, healthcare, education and care for creation are increasingly being redirected toward instruments of destruction.

Pope Leo reminds us that Christian peace is not passive resignation. It calls for an unarmed struggle against injustice—a struggle that refuses to reproduce the very violence it seeks to overcome. Jesus’ command to put away the sword finds its deepest meaning in the Cross, where he takes upon himself the consequences of human sin without returning evil for evil.

The Risen Christ still bears his wounds, but he does not turn them into weapons. He comes to his frightened disciples with the greeting, “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19).

Perhaps this is the challenge before us, especially as people entrusted with interpreting the Scriptures: to help liberate the struggle for justice from the logic of vengeance, and to ensure that the Word of God is never turned into a weapon against another people.

As St. Paul reminds us, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21).

That is the unarmed struggle. And perhaps only such a struggle can lead us to a truly disarming peace.

THE LORD ROARS OVER GAZA

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A Modern Oracle in the Tradition of Amos 1:6–2:16

Thus says the Lord:

For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not revoke my judgment.

Because you have turned the land of Gaza into a wasteland, and made its people wander like strangers in their own homeland.

Because you have brought down the houses of the poor upon their heads, and reduced their dwellings to heaps of rubble.

Because you have commanded entire communities to leave their homes, yet have given them no place where they may dwell in safety.

Because you have driven the widow from her dwelling and the orphan from his inheritance, and have made the little children weep for the homes to which they may never return.

You say, “We have warned them to leave.”

But where shall they go?
To the sea, where there is no land on which to build their tents? To the south, where the displaced already crowd together under the burning sun? To the streets, where there is no shelter from the heat of the day or the cold of the night?

You say, “We have marked their buildings for destruction.”

But have you marked the tears of the mothers who must gather their children and flee? Have you counted the days of the elderly who have nowhere left to go? Have you measured the anguish of those who must abandon the homes in which they have lived all their lives?

You say, “We are defending our people.”

But shall the suffering of your people justify the suffering of another? Shall the blood of your children be avenged by the blood of other children?

Have I not commanded you, O Israel, to remember that you were once strangers in the land of Egypt? Have I not taught you to protect the widow, the orphan, and the stranger who dwells among you?

You have remembered the promise of the land, but have you forgotten the demands of justice?

You have remembered the covenant, but have you forgotten the God who made it with you?

Therefore, thus says the Lord:

I will not be silenced by the thunder of your weapons, nor shall the cries of the innocent be drowned out by the proclamations of your rulers.

I will call to account those who command the destruction, those who carry it out, and those who justify the suffering of the innocent.

For no nation shall claim my blessing while trampling upon the dignity of another people.

No army shall invoke my name to excuse the destruction of the defenseless.

And no ruler shall hide behind the security of his own people to escape accountability for the suffering of another.

For I am the Lord who hears the cry of the oppressed, and the blood of the innocent cries out to me from the ground.

Thus says the Lord:
For three transgressions of the powerful nations, and for four, I will not revoke my judgment.
Because you have seen the destruction and have turned away your eyes.
Because you have heard the cries of the displaced and have stopped your ears.
Because you have supplied the weapons of war while speaking eloquently of peace.
Because you have weighed the lives of the innocent against your alliances and your interests, and have found the latter more precious.
You gather in your assemblies and speak of human rights. You sign solemn declarations and proclaim the dignity of every human person.
Yet when the children cry out for bread, you offer them resolutions. When the homeless plead for shelter, you offer them expressions of concern. When the wounded cry out for mercy, you calculate the political cost of speaking the truth.

Therefore, thus says the Lord:

I despise your solemn declarations when they are not accompanied by justice.
I take no delight in your conferences when the cries of the oppressed are left unanswered.
Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream!
And now, O people of God, hear the word of the Lord.
Do not imagine that these oracles are addressed only to the nations whose names have been spoken.
For the Lord who judges the nations also judges those who profess to worship him.
You who gather in your churches and synagogues, you who bow in your mosques, you who invoke the name of the God of Abraham, what have you done for the least of his children?
Have you allowed your loyalty to your own people to make you indifferent to the suffering of another?
Have you remained silent because the victims do not belong to your nation, your religion, or your community?
Have you condemned the cruelty of your enemies while finding excuses for the cruelty of your friends?
Do you think that your prayers can rise to heaven while the cries of the innocent remain unheard upon the earth?

Thus says the Lord:

I do not ask you to choose which children deserve to live.
I do not ask you to decide which mothers deserve to weep.
I do not ask you to weigh the suffering of one people against the suffering of another.
I ask you to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.
For the day will come when the weapons shall fall silent, when the ruins shall be cleared, and when the children of Gaza and Israel shall no longer be taught to fear one another.
But that day will not come through the multiplication of graves, nor through the destruction of homes, nor through the humiliation of one people by another.
It will come when justice is restored, when the captives are set free, when the displaced are allowed to return to their homes, and when every child, Palestinian and Israeli alike, can sleep without fear of the night.
For thus says the Lord:
I desire mercy, not vengeance; justice, not domination; and peace, not the silence of the grave.
Let those who have ears hear.
(Scriptural inspiration: Amos 1:3–2:16; 5:21–24; Exodus 22:20–23;