Teaching peace
The Vatican Information Service released a message today from the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue to Buddhists celebrating the feast of Vesakh. There are scores of interesting news items coming out of VIS that each deserve attention, but this little blurb says a lot more then its brevity suggests.
The Message for Vesakh 2007 – published in English, Italian and French, and entitled “Christians and Buddhists: educating communities to live in harmony and peace” – begins: “Building a community requires concrete gestures which reflect the respect for the dignity of others. … Yet, there are people today who still need to learn about others and other people’s beliefs in order to overcome prejudices and misunderstandings.”
This caught my attention for different reasons. One, because the very same groups that vociferously demand total tolerance and respect for other people’s beliefs are usually the ones for whom the only acceptable intolerance is against Christians.
Another reason is because this message dovetails nicely with the post just below on the importance of religion in raising children.
“Education for peace is a responsibility which must be borne by all sectors of society. Of course, this starts in ordinary homes where the family, the fundamental pillar of society, strives to transmit traditional and sound values to children by a deliberate effort to inform their consciences. The younger generations deserve and indeed thrive upon value-based education which reinforces respect, acceptance, compassion and equality.”
Contrast that with the ‘values-free’ education enforced in the public school system over the past several decades. It’s called that, but some values are being taught in all education. Yesterday I was with a group of Catholic professionals talking over a range of issues, and the conversation was compelling. At one point, the attorney – who’s also a Church historian and speaker – made the statement that a society that has spent about four decades devaluing life from abortion to euthanasia and re-defining the language to make them more acceptable, a society that radicalizes individual freedoms and civil liberties and produces more violence with less accountability, just does not reflect a better way for civilization than the Christianity it seeks to overthrow. If it did, let someone make the argument, he says.
Back to that VIS message on being an instrument of peace…
With reference to the communications media, the Message states: “The media’s power to shape minds, especially of the young, cannot be underestimated. While the irresponsible elements within it are increasingly being recognized for what they are, it is also the case that much good can be effected through quality productions and educational programs. When people working within the media exercise their moral conscience, it is possible to dispel ignorance and impart knowledge, preserve social values, and portray the transcendental dimension of life which arises from the spiritual nature of all people.”
That was another topic of this gathering yesterday, how to communicate truth, inform consciences with a moral framework, preserve social values and maintain the constant teachings of the faith. The media may be awkward and uncomfortable in handling “the transcendental dimension of life”, but peace in the world starts with peace in the heart, “which arises from the spiritual nature” of each person. We agreed around this table that all this great thought about changing the world has to begin with being personally holy, even…and especially…when it’s really hard.
