Welcome to 51EBde PA, website

LET THERE BE PEACE
By: LTCOL SIEGFRED A OMAYAO CHS
(PA) Brigade Chaplain

In the second Sunday of Advent, the candle of peace is lighted. With it is the Prayer: “Lord Jesus light of the world, the prophets said. You would bring peace and save Your people from trouble. Give peace in our hearts at Christmas tide. We ask that as we wait for You to come again, that You will remain present in us. Help us today, and everyday to worship You, to hear Your word and to do Your will by clearing Your peace with each other. We ask it in the name of the One who was born Bethlehem. Amen.”

It is a prayer of recognition that in Christ alone is our true peace. Many times we had attempted to make peace be among men and women regardless of faith, culture and tradition in yesteryears. Our concerted efforts for peace had reached only the level of temporary or transitory peace among us. To end war thru violence or annihilation will not hear lasting peace. Will peace remain elusive or an impossible dream? Were all our efforts in the past useless? A big No, to answer both questions. We are on the right track and every effort for peace counts. Every dream, desire and aspiration to let peace reign in every heart of the Filipinos is all important.



It is worthwhile to review and to look back all those attempts made in years gone by. We can find out that there were factors that were made as the target of our efforts – basically poverty and others related to basic needs of a person. Pure and solid efforts were spent to address them, if not for total solution at least for alleviation, which direction has been effective for a certain period of time – thus an experience of transitory peace.

Effective but short termed. In the second Sunday of Advent Gospel reading, we can find a voice from the wilderness with a challenging message for a call to repentance and to change of heart. To quote from Luke 3.1 – 6.


“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Phillip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of god came to John the son of Zechariah in the desert.

John went throughout the whole region of Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: A voice of one crying out in the desert: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made smooth, and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

Inner conversion is needed to establish the reign of God. This is a way of life not only for some who dreamt of peace but for all, both the culprits and victims of violence. Change from within is what we need for a lasting peace.


True and lasting peace is in the building up of God’s Kingdom among us. As the voice of John would remind us, it is through inner and personal conversion that said kingdom would be realized. Take away sins from the heart of every person and so let the holy will of God the Father, thou the teaching of the Son and by the power of the Holy Spirit that true and lasting peace be achieved. Let that peace starts from` within you, me and in all. Take away sin and all sinful inclinations from within each of us and let God settle down in our hearts. And as God has treated us with love and compassion, let us abhor sins (committed and omitted acts) and save the sinner. Peace thru the Holiness for all.