In Hiroshima this week: "Give me leaders and I will raise the world"
In Hiroshima this week, urgent peace delegations that include students, faculty, and staff from colleges and universities are gathering. Bishops from South Korea, Japan, and the United States are issuing a joint proposal on nuclear weapons, emphasizing the pressing need for their abolition. Cardinal McElroy: "Nuclear weapons must be abolished from the face of the earth."
Thomas Merton's writings, especially "The Root of War is Fear," give us, as members of JOC, the chance to broaden our education, not just academically, but also to friends and neighbors who sit with us in a pew, live in our neighborhoods, and struggle to pay their bills.
Fear fuels violence against humanity. We must understand what Merton was addressing—the psychological and spiritual roots of war—and why pursuing inner peace and self-awareness is crucial. Merton's message urges us to confront and eliminate injustice and greed within ourselves, enabling others to see and understand, and to strive for the complete elimination of war and injustice in our world, including in our streets in LA, Chicago, and beyond.
Merton showed us that the dignity of every human life and the need for peace are still as relevant today as they were in the 1960s when he was writing.
"Give me leaders and I will raise the world" ~Joseph Cardijn.
"Three fundamental truths dominate and illumine the problem of the working youth of the world. They inspire, explain, and direct us towards the solution that the Y.C.W. has to give:
A truth of faith. The eternal and temporal destiny of each young worker in particular and of all the young workers in general.
A truth of experience. The terrible contradiction that exists between the real state of the young workers and this eternal and temporal destiny.
A truth of pastoral practice or method. The need for a Catholic organisation of young workers with a view to the conquest of their eternal and temporal destiny." ~ Joseph Cardijn
These three truths apply to our work in bringing about peace and justice today. Each of us has a crucial role to play in becoming a meaningful voice in the ongoing conversation about the problem of war and fear. How can you and I step up and contribute?
