I believe it was yesterday in 1962 that the world breathed a sigh of relief. After nearly two weeks of extreme tension, Nikita Khrushchev agreed to remove nuclear-armed missiles from Cuba, and John F. Kennedy promised never to invade Fidel Castro’s country. What could have become a catastrophic war was avoided. The Cuban Missile Crisis is now seen as one of the most dangerous moments in modern history — a time when the world came perilously close to nuclear war.
This took place barely two decades after the end of the Second World War. Over 60 million people died during the second world war and the devastation would still have been vivid in people’s minds, neither side truly wanted to see more destruction. Diplomacy, and even swallowing a little humble pie, was far better than another war.
More than sixty years later, we might wonder whether the world has forgotten some of those painful lessons. Across our globe today, there are still conflicts where men, women, and children — ordinary people — lose their homes, their livelihoods, and too often their lives, simply because of where they were born or which flag flies over their country.
A few years ago, a school not unlike ours welcomed several refugee children who had fled a war zone. At first, their story drew a lot of attention: pupils and teachers made special efforts to help them settle in, to make them feel safe and valued. But as time went on, they simply became part of the community — classmates, teammates, friends. That’s as it should be. Yet it also reminds us how easily we can become used to conflict — how quickly something extraordinary can begin to feel normal.
Pope John Paul II once said these powerful words at the start of the new millennium:
“Violence never again! War never again! Terrorism never again!”
In God’s name, may all religions bring upon earth justice and peace, forgiveness, life and love!”
Perhaps the lesson for us today in school, in our communities, and in the wider world is that peace begins with the choices we make every day: how we speak, how we listen, how we forgive. Because peace isn’t just the absence of war ; it’s the presence of understanding.
