Let us pray for peace this Easter, Passover and Ramadan
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The vast majority of the world — billions of Abraham’s children — are collectively lifting their voices to God this month. We should be praying for peace.
After years of COVID-19 restrictions, the world’s Jews, Christians and Muslims are this month finally praying again as we used to. The last lingering restrictions on mosques, churches and synagogues have all but fallen off. Our places of worship are full of people seeking God’s mercy.
And, like very few times in recent history, our holy days are all happening near simultaneously this year. As more than 1 billion Muslims fast for Ramadan, Jews will be commemorating Passover and Christians will be celebrating Easter. The world will be electrified with the prayers of those who sincerely believe in God.
And it could not come at a better time. Our world is rife with post-pandemic challenges. Millions face economic uncertainty caused by everything from supply-chain disruptions to hyperinflation.
Meanwhile, serious security crises also continue to cause global upheaval. Asia is still coping with all that has come from a turbulent six months in Afghanistan, while a resurgent terrorist regime in Iran is buoyed by American and European naivety in Vienna. The great continent of Africa struggles with conflicts from Ethiopia in the east to the countless extremist insurgencies operating throughout the Sahel and broader Africa in the west. Then, in Europe, Ukraine lays in shambles as Europe arms itself for the threat of a broader war. In the Middle East, rockets flung by Iran’s Houthi terrorists have hit targets from Abu Dhabi to Jeddah.
But the miracle of peace is possible.
There is a path where prayer is used to divide humanity and there is a path where prayer is a gift to bring together Abraham’s children
Rev. Johnnie Moore
Just take the historic agreements between Israel, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco, which continue to hold steady despite near-constant efforts to derail or undermine them. Last week’s Negev summit showed that this peace is only strengthened by opposition, like a knot that tightens when it is under tension.
It is also a peace that gives perspective to the broader region, as Emirati Ambassador to the US Yousef Al-Otaiba said in remarks he delivered at Liberty University last week. “The Abraham Accords produced a win-win-win outcome for all,” he said, while noting that “the two-state solution was preserved and annexation prevented. A rare diplomatic feat but not a substitute for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement.”
This shared Ramadan, Passover and Easter is an invitation for us to get to know our neighbors, whose religion may be different but whose faith calls on all of us to treat our neighbors with love and respect.
There is a path where prayer is used to divide humanity and there is a path where prayer is a gift to bring together Abraham’s children. The path of peace may lead to different destinations for different nations and peoples, but it is always the better path. It is always possible.
This Ramadan, Passover and Easter, let us not only pray for peace but also play our individual parts to bring together a divided world.
During Easter, we Christians celebrate our redemption through the miracle of Jesus’ resurrection. God redeems us — or saves us — from our faults and our sins as we put our trust in Him. Easter is the story of a miracle.
May God resurrect us too, all of us, during this holy season, so that we can bring a burst of new life to our tired world. May he grant us all the blessing of living in peace with one another.
Yes, let us — billions of us — pray for the blessing of peace, an enduring peace for all.
• Rev. Johnnie Moore is president of the Congress of Christian Leaders and founder of the KAIROS Company.
