Prophecy of peace

Marica: How can we talk about peace today? It seems almost impossible...

I understand this feeling very well because we feel it within us and around us. We're accustomed, we feel powerless, overwhelmed, and we protect ourselves by locking ourselves in "I don't want to know about it."
Living in the Arsenale, I realized we've developed an antibody to indifference, or even repulsion.
What makes the difference in our lives are encounters with the people who physically experience those wars and tragedies.
People who bring home to us the war they've experienced and the wounds they've suffered. If I stop to think, there's not a day in our lives that we haven't met people like this. Men and women who have literally brought war before our eyes. If you're faced with bad news, you can change the channel or turn the newspaper's page, but when you're faced with a person who tells you where they come from, what they've experienced, what their compatriots are experiencing, then it touches your heart and changes you, pushes you to make a difference, gives you strength even when you can't take it anymore and when you're tired.

When the war in Ukraine began, I felt the convictions about peace I'd developed over the years were wavering.
I asked myself: does it still make sense to believe in peace? What was the point of working for forty years, building the Arsenal of Peace, meeting and speaking to so many people?
Is it all a dream that the war is sweeping away? For a few months, I truly experienced this struggle, these doubts. And I wondered what motivation I could convey to the young people who would come to the Arsenal for the peace march or other formative moments.
I questioned myself, and it was difficult to face the impotence, the loss of meaning in everything I believed in and did. I have experienced firsthand what it means to feel disillusioned and, in a certain sense, betrayed.

Then once again the word of God came to my aid. The prophet Jeremiah recalls that some prophets of ancient times had distinguished themselves by prophesying war, famine, and plague against many countries and powerful kingdoms, but "the prophet who prophesies peace will be known as a prophet truly sent by the Lord only when his word comes true" (Jer 28:9).

Those who accept the prophecy of peace know that what they believe in, what they strive for, is something that is painfully forged and that only God will fully realize in His time. Those who choose this path do not count on the success of their work, but work tirelessly to prepare the way for peace. Then I began to rethink peace as a glimpse into the heart of God, to find the peace that does not exist on earth, to see where peace, the absolute good for humanity, already exists. That image of fullness restored meaning to my toil. I have understood that peace lies in God, and I must seek it there as a promise, as a prophecy that will come true.

The work of peace is a foretaste, a prophecy in action, a foretaste of the Kingdom of God that the Gospel proclaims so that we can experience it here and now. I have once again chosen to place myself at the service of the prophecy of peace that the Gospel Beatitudes anticipate: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God" (Mt 5:9).

Today I renew my "yes" to peace with greater conviction and determination.
Peace is a fact, like love and hope. They are not vague words, they are not slogans; they are facts and choices in our lives that make us truly human.
Peace comes from me: it seems to me that today it is the only meaningful proclamation of peace. It seems like a small thing, while Europe is arming itself, while America and Russia are dividing up the lands, while the world is heading towards global conflicts.
Perhaps it is a small thing, but it is the only thing I can live by. This is what God can do with me, with each of us today, to keep his prophecy of peace alive on this earth.

Rosanna Tabasso
NP April 2025