At the root of all war is fear: not so much the fear men have of one another as the fear they have of everything. It is not merely that they don’t trust one another: they do not trust themselves. If they are not sure when someone else may turn around and kill them, they are still less sure when they may turn around and kill themselves. They cannot trust anything because they have ceased to believe in God.
Will you end wars by asking men to trust men who evidently cannot be trusted? No. Teach them to love and trust God; then they will be able to love the men they cannot trust, and will dare to make peace with them, not trusting in them but in God.–Thomas Merton, Seeds of Contemplation.
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