PEACE, AN ELUSIVE GIFT TO US...

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                                          Peace, an Elusive gift to us

           For many of us, wherever we are in the world, or whatever race we belong to and whatsoever stand we exposed, PEACE IS AN ELUSIVE GIFT.

            I had once a friend, a college teacher like me in Notre Dame of Dadiangas College, now Notre Dame of Dadiangas University. She confided to me her secret.

            “You know Rose”, she said, I can’t understand myself. Because till now all my 3 boyfriends (BF’s) are gone no matter how much I tried to hold them”.

           “At the time I felt I was close to each of them,” she went on, “He was gone! So I felt alone and disgusted!!

          Why, I asked her. “You know”, she said, “When we have an argument, I see to it that I win in it.”

           That’s why you lost all of them; I commented “yes” she sadly responded to me.

           Like a lover, peace is elusive. Why? Because we think of it and treat it as one which we can dominate, never to allow it to go free.

           When the lord rose from the dead, He appeared to His apostles and greeted them “Peace I give to you, not as the world gives it” In the guise of good, we greet peace. But in reality that peace is sugar-coated to appear delicious, in the guise of gold, diamonds, anything that glitters.

           But we never realize that   “not all that glitters is gold or diamonds.”

            Why is peace AN ELUSIVE GIFT to us? Because it needs to be fully free, without any mixture of selfishness, arrogance, condescension, domination. The more we release it, the better it would stick to us. Like a plastic bunching toy that we hold but we release it freely, we enjoy the game, don’t we?

            Peace, as the song says, STARTS WITH OURSELVES, with sharp care to be humble to be patient with ourselves and others.

           To listen more rather than to talk, to see the points of view of the others rather than our own, to allow the others to be themselves, never to dictate them what to do but just to suggest or offer an idea or solution to a problem—these can be avenues to building peace.

            Briefly, peace is the result of the truly human-heart to heart dialogue or relationship with anyone that looks forward to letting the other “free”

           Peace in Mindanao is a very big problem, why? Because the minority like the Muslims is made to feel that they are “second” or “third” class citizens of our country.

           So, we look down on them. We don’t allow them to be themselves. We dictate on them our own Values, our own culture, our own whims and caprices, considering that many of them are uneducated, Instead of us to lift them to decency, to righteousness, because we are Christians. (By: Prof. Rose A. Barrera Co-Anchor of ADLSNT and adlsntv.blogspot.com)