Akangjungla
A little less than two week time is away for the Christmas Day. The traditions of putting up decorations, lighting up the streets and homes, shopping, making plans for vacation etc are now part of the daily routine. The season’s greetings convey the meaning of Christmas which is centrally the celebration of love, peace on earth, joy and happiness and of all the things for which the world now yearns, the most wished for is peace. Every nation in the world, in principal and some in action, are striving to move forward towards peace. The hope is for a new world with peace and order. Thus, the necessity for peace is a collective.
Today the world is full of call for peace and anti-war slogans. Humankind is inflicted with endless conflict and war. And the yearning has been to ‘prevent escalating war, help restore peace following the outbreak of armed conflict, and promote lasting peace in societies emerging from wars.’ The war, in all its dimensions, has exacerbated a global cost-of-living crisis unseen in at least a generation, compromising lives, livelihoods, and our aspirations for a better world by 2030, predicts the UNDP in a June 2022 report. The ongoing Israel-Hamas war topped news trends in 2023, as per Google’s “Year in Search” global data. The 17th edition of the Global Peace Index of the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) reveals ‘a concerning surge in global conflicts, with pre-existing tensions predating even the significant Russian invasion of Ukraine.’ The Manipur state has been marred with internal conflict since May 3, 2023 and it continues. The conflict of self-determination for the Naga, Indo-Naga political issue, is considered as the longest running struggle in the Indian sub-continent. Likewise, violence and war come closer home in one form or the other.
Georgia Harkness a theologian and philosopher, in her book ‘Prayer and the Common Life,’ have an entire chapter written on ‘Prayer and the Peace of the World.’ Harkness notes, “To begin with, there will be no peaceful world unless there is faith that peace is possible.” She explores the possibilities of attaining peace through the approach of faith and prayer. “We can have peace in the world if enough people put away complacency and unrest to find within their souls the peace that leads to works of good will. There is no likelihood of a reconstructed world without reconstructed individuals. Without the discovery of spiritual resources by great numbers of men and women the future is dark,” the philosopher believes.
This Christmas, the seasons’ greetings must hold a deeper meaning beyond writing down messages, exchanging gifts and get-togethers. If ‘goodwill, love, and peace’ are truly and authentically what we are wishing each other in this season, we must look for instilling harmony and navigation healing into the desperate state of humanity, starting as individual, family, society and the church.
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