The Pain of the World

THE PAIN OF THE WORLD

The pain of the world is so great.
Which way do we return?
Is there any real hope?
Can there be any response to the terrible cries around us and within us?

Today some feel that the only answer
is national security:
defending themselves more effectively,
clarifying their identity more sharply,
getting rid of strangers
and all who disturb.
Any form of pluralism in this vision becomes dangerous
Because it may bring confusion and erode identity.
So new barriers are built,
Developing a sense of being the strongest,
of being the best.

In such a world,
the Christian churches seem to many people irrelevant,
for they too are more a cause of division and of war
than a source of unity and peace.
To walk down the street and see
-----the Baptist church,
-----the Lutheran church,
-----the Anglican church,
-----the Presbyterian church,
-----the Methodist church,
-----the Roman Catholic church,
-----this or that church,
-----each one preaching its own Jesus,
collecting money,
bulding more buildings
defending its own frontiers.
All this seem unbearable, intolerable hypocrisy!
Where is our hope?
Where is the prophets of peace today?

Maybe these words seem pessimistic.
Truly, there are signs of hope in our world today;
people are rising up, believing in life, in human life,
yearning to be peacemakers,
struggling for unity.
But many do not see these signs.
They only see a broken world:
-----a world of war and despair,
-----a world governed by fear,
-----a world of pain and suffering,
-----a chaotic world of greed and oppression,
-----of lust for power, for pleasure and for security.
They feel despondent and without hope,
but somewhere in them there is a longing
to discover the road to peace.