A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

By Silvia Holgado (Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi)

March 6th 2024 - Notre Dame of Jerusalem Center

A few days ago I was speaking with other people who live here during lunch in the Notre Dame dinning room about the emergency situation we are experiencing in the Holy Land. Horrible words like war, terrorists, violence, kidnappings, genocide, acidly peppered the conversation, which in fact was intended to encourage us in hope. Obviously, the dialogue seemed to fall short of that aspiration.

Turning my head, I saw that three of our staff members had just arrived to eat and they got their food and sat down at a table.

And suddenly, I saw it. That image. Three out of three (I hope you get what I mean..all of them), there they were, chatting calmly around the table, like the most natural thing in the world. They do not have armies, weapons, power, or speeches in large international organizations in their hands. No, they have their work at Notre Dame, their day-to-day life, their fatigue. They have family, children to teach, with actions not words, that another situation is possible, another way of relating is within our reach.

And that image, more than the pile of words used and heard, encouraged me in the hope of peace here, in this land jaded of violence. Peace is possible in the Holy Land. But you won't see it on television, that's for sure. To see the truth you will have to come here to experience it among the people, among the enormous number of good people who live here.