Peace is not the absence of war; it is tranquility in order, Augustine of Hippo asserted in the fourth century. True peace, lasting peace, peace that transcends the cosmetic moment and is substantive, is not built through war, but by choosing truth, goodness, and unarmed beauty. “If you want peace, prepare for war,” said the Romans, who ultimately saw their Empire fall. “If you want peace, defend life,” Paul VI prophetically declared.

Yes, unarmed truth, the truth that is not imposed by force, the truth that conquers through attraction and not coercion, is the only truth that can found and sustain lasting peace. The reason is compelling, both speculatively and historically: only the courageous affirmation of good ends with good means can halt the spiral of violence and destruction.  When peace is imposed by betraying peace, that is, by means contrary to its very nature, it sooner rather than later accumulates bitterness, obsessive hatred, and a culture of death.

In the history of philosophy, Hegel has been the author who most profoundly attempted to theorize that the perspective we are describing is naive, is “do-goodism,” is ignorance of the true fabric of history. For the German philosopher, force and truth are inseparable and develop together in the dialectical process. Moreover, force is the manifestation of truth in the world. With these premises, it is clear that the people who triumph in the struggles of history are the bearers of the highest spiritual principles. The fragile objective truth, naked and unarmed, finds no possibility of defense in the Hegelian system.  Truth resides in the one who triumphs, in the one who imposes himself, in the one who humiliates and teaches others, destroying them.  Violence, for the violent, is always “the midwife of history.”

The discovery of truth through dialogue, through passionate love for wisdom, through respect for the face of the other, is completely foreign to the mindset of the violent: for them, truth does not need to be explored, it must be imposed by force. Freedom is not obedience to truth, but the affirmation of the being of things through one’s own power.

What must happen for our societies to understand that attempting to establish peace through violence is a trap that ultimately fuels the deepest desires for resentment and revenge? What must happen for us to understand that peace is a precious good that can only be recovered when we refuse to turn our adversary into an irreconcilable enemy ?

From its poor, limited reality, the Catholic Church continues to propose, even in these days, the only true contribution: peace is not built through displays of force or patriotic exaltations. Peace is born only from those who accept their own misery in their hearts and recognize that they need a parameter greater than their own “I” for life. In other words:  without the experience of true positivity, capable of embracing everything and everyone, it is impossible to begin again.  This is the essence of the kind of “common good” we are called to build today if we do not wish to contemplate the absurdity of the death of more human beings, including our children, in the near future.