The Buddhist sage Geshe Kelsang Gyatso once said in a world of uncertainty and unrest, the one word that people of all ages around the globe are looking for with inner eagerness is nothing but PEACE.
Without inner peace, outer peace is impossible. Although we all wish for peace for our troubled world, this can never be achieved unless we establish peace within our own hearts and minds.
On this festive occasion where we, as writers, are trying our best to avoid attack or criticism, no one can ignore that the cause of death and destruction in the Middle East is down to one country.
It is a state that appears to have an unquenchable thirst to grab anything and everything from weaker neighbours, in the same manner as Rome did 20 centuries ago.
Today, many powerful nations sit back and allow atrocities to continue.
How can we carry on? In a time of crisis and chaos, nothing is more important than faith and hope.
Faith may not be able to lessen the hardship and sorrow but it can make it bearable. So how is that possible?
If we look back at the history of humanity and read about the fears and tears, the depths of misery may overwhelm us. However, out of the darkness we witness many examples of hope that appear to guide us towards the light of faith.
They come in the form of humanness, where forgiveness and not revenge offers the panacea to wash our hearts, to foster our fellowship with both love and kindness.
We, in the national press, have a responsibility and commitment to be as frank as possible, and acknowledge that the road to peace is a hell of a task.
Every good man and woman should shoulder this responsibility if we want to stop the evil of destructive elements.
When God sent the Lord Jesus, his mission involved his teachings to differentiate grace from greed, kindness from cruelty and love from hate because in his time, the rulers of Rome had reached to a level of beasts, sending men to fight to the death in arenas and throwing the faithful to starving lions.
Therefore, what we see today is not new; it is a continuation of the ill legacy of the past, but using different methods.
As writer, poet and visual artist Gibran Khalil Gibran once said, ‘yet the timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness, and knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream’.
We, the people, have the ability to do the right thing; it only requires our unity, irrespective of religion, caste or creed.
On this note and on this happy occasion, the birth of the blessed soul, I wish my Christian brothers and sisters, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, as well as to the entire world.
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