PEACE. Once again, I am filled with deep sadness when I think about the current state of our world. We still know that the world is full of small and large armed conflicts that cost thousands of people their lives or their physical and mental well-being. And it is still simply inconceivable that we humans apparently do not want to learn anything from our history. So I want to go back to the verse from Mat 5:39:

“If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.”

A wisdom that immediately irritates us. Why do I have to suffer the pain twice and be humiliated to achieve peace? – Not a few will ask what good it is. It is nothing more than a wisdom that the ancient Greeks had already recognized over 2500 years ago, namely that of amnesty. There it was prescribed by law and carried out in all its consequences. What does that mean?

The past cannot be undone, as we all know from often painful experiences. The call and desire for revenge, retribution and (supposed) justice is strong. But how can we escape this spiral of abuse, murder, manslaughter and ongoing mutual violence? It is a dilemma that has plagued human history for millennia, and we see the best example of this in the events in the Middle East. War and suffering only lead to new war and suffering – a seemingly endless cycle of horror. Continue Reading