Promoting Peaceful Coexistence and Common Citizenship

[ 26 ] — INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE FOR PEACE — us: “When he was insulted, he returned no insult; when he suffered, he did not threaten; instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.” (1 Peter 2:23). Jesus bore the full brunt of human violence, delivering himself to it and facing its attempt to triumph over Himwith love, forgiveness and redemption. Thus, religious violence has always been overpowered by love. From this point of view, there is no jus- tification for violence, or for retaliation in the name of God, or for the salvation of people against their will because truth does not impose itself unless with the force of truth itself, which flows into the mind with efficiency and kindness. 2 In this way, Christ illustrates a triangle, a symbol of the Trinity, in order that Christians should follow the footsteps of their saviour by spreading the culture of forgiveness and peace in the face of violence; by recognizing that the path of resurrection through Christ is through forgiveness and a courageous, steadfast faith, rather than through weakness; and by abiding by the message of reconciliation that Christ has handed over to the Church to consolidate unity among the people. Christianity has gone through many periods of discord and disloyalty to this evangelical teaching and mission, and has been misused in political violence because of the exploitation of the Christian religion for foreign purposes. This occurred when Christianity was a religion combined with an independent state. But when religion was separated from the state, according to the saying of Jesus Christ: “Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God” (Mark 12:17), violence in the name of the Christian religion ceased. The Lord of the Opponent says that the relationship betweenGod and violence is quite clear in the Bible under the old covenant in the Old Testament whichChristianity believes is also linked to and not separate from the New Testament.