For the last 164 days Europe has been filled with the din of artillery, the rumors of missiles, and the cries of many families and children in the midst of the destruction caused by war. But in the first days of August a cry for peace was also heard on European lands.
About 300 young people gathered at the Acamps Summer Festival raised in one voice a cry for peace. Spanish, Portuguese, French, Hungarian, Polish, German, Latin-American, Italian, Croatians gathered in Molise, south central Italy to live days of fraternity, sharing and prayer.
What could simple voices be in the confrontation with weapons? What is the power of prayer in the face of the deadly power of missiles? The young people gathered in Molise answer, the revolutionary power of peace is capable not only of silencing the noises of war, but also of transforming the instruments of war into instruments of peace, as the prophet Isaiah narrates “They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. One nation will not lift up a sword against another, nor will they ever again be trained for war” (Isaiah 2:4)
Acamps Summer Festival, from the verb “restart”
The experience of the young people at the Acamps is a testimony to the power that is hidden in being at the table together, in sports where the joy of meeting is greater than that of simply winning, of making the other being understood with a simple smile, with a handshake – or even in the breaking of bread in the Eucharist celebrated every day. In the sacrament of reconciliation, the deepest peace one can experience, to be forgiven and to forgive.
This being together is in a sense warlike – a war against enmity and selfishness. Learning to appreciate difference, instead of wanting to eliminate it. To discover the foundation of all possible fraternity, to be children of the same father, of the same mother. Children of God, children of the Church. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a small balm on the wound opened by war.
Ministers and disciples of Peace
It is true that the term peace does not mean only the absence of war. It has a broader meaning; it is perceived from the outside, but enjoyed from the inside. Those who enjoy it want company. They want to communicate. They want to see it.
Referring to one of the hypotheses about the origin of the name “Europe”, the one in which the name would derive from the expression eurús op, that is, “big view”, “wide look”, which evokes the ability to look beyond, Pope Francis in a message to the participants of the European Youth Conference Prague, held July 11-13, 2022 stated “I am pleased to think of you, young Europeans, as people with a wide, open look, able to see beyond.”
What can these young people, who are originally visionaries, do in their own countries? Build on the outside what they have on the inside. Ministers and disciples of Peace, the one that only the Risen One who passed through the Cross can give.