Peace on Earth?

This week the United Nations reiterated its call for a global ceasefire, essentially asking all nations to stop warfare in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. As the Daily Mail puts it:

As the UN chief pointed out, COVID-19 does not care about nationality or ethnicity, or other differences between people, and “attacks all, relentlessly”, including during wartime. 

It is the most vulnerable - women and children, people with disabilities, the marginalized, displaced and refugees - who pay the highest price during conflict and who are most at risk of suffering “devastating losses” from the disease. 

This makes total sense of me, but then I figure wars are an abomination, a senseless waste of life and the squandering of the resources of nations. Before the pandemic we were attempting to address a global climate crisis. Yet doing so was met with great reluctance on the part of many countries while trillions of dollars are spent on weaponry and military offensives. 

Eight Light-armoured vehicles, parked temporarily n Saint John's Sept. 18, 2019.JOSEPH TUNNEY

Canada has supported this initiative, which is commendable, but seems two-faced. On Thursday the federal government lifted  a moratorium on approving new permits for military exports to Saudi Arabia after renegotiating some terms of a controversial $14-billion deal to sell light-armoured vehicles to this nation which has a horrible human rights record at home and abroad. 

During Holy Week and  this Easter weekend we remember the Christ who on the night of his arrest held his disciple Peter back from violence and said “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword."

Tomorrow we will celebrate that the peasant Jesus who was brutally killed by an occupying regime rose from the dead as the Risen Christ, the Prince of Peace. 

Yes, we need a moratorium on conflict, but not because of the threat of a virus and not for a matter of months. This needs to be a global commitment, a new way of thinking for humanity and the health of our planetary home. The angelic Christmas declaration of "peace on Earth" is our Easter hope as well. 

Peter cuts off the ear of Malchus in the Garden of Gethsemane

Could COVID-19 be nature's retribution for messing up the planet? I'm dubious, but why not read today's Groundling blog as I explore the subject? 

https://groundlingearthyheavenly.blogspot.com/2020/04/is-nature-smiting-us-with-virus.html