By: Father Joseph Soueid

Patriarchal Deputy Patroarch.

Head of the Maronite Church in all Jordan and

Saint Charbel Church in Amman.

A plea for every heart still believing that life is worth choosing.

Leaders of this fallen world…

I speak to you today… in my own name, and in the name of your mothers… and all the mothers of this planet.

Enough wars.

You have done enough for peace and humanity, but now the world cries out.

Because numbers are no longer numbers… they are faces, names, and tears.

We implore you. We beg you. Enough.

In just a few years, wars have cost more than $2 to $3 trillion, spent on destruction, while life itself is left underfunded.

But let us imagine… just for a moment…

Imagine if this amount were used for peace. If death and hate were replaced with creation and life.

Imagine

• Conservatories filled with music, not skies filled with missiles.
• Interactive schools full of curious minds, not children hiding in fear.
• Guest houses welcoming travelers instead of camps for the displaced.
• Gardens growing flowers instead of fields marked by graves.
• Beautiful auditoriums where voices rise in art, not in pain.
• Playgrounds filled with laughter instead of silence after explosions.
• Cinemas, movies, and stories that bring people together, not news that breaks them apart.
• Restaurants full of life… streets full of light… cities alive at night with joy, not danger.

Imagine promoting life with the same intensity used to promote war.
Imagine investing in happiness the way you invest in weapons.
Imagine if every billion spent on destruction were instead spent on creation.

Imagine the jobs…

Not temporary work, not fragile jobs born from crisis, but real, lasting opportunities, where people wake up every morning knowing they are building life, not surviving destruction.

Imagine the mothers

Smiling instead of mourning.
Holding their children without fear,
planning for tomorrow without despair.

Imagine the children…

Dreaming instead of merely surviving.

Learning, laughing, growing in a world where hope is not stolen from them.

Imagine a world…

Where fear is not inherited,

Where trauma is not a legacy passed down through generations.

This is not impossible. This is a choice.

Imagine salaries that honor those who give life meaning…

• Teachers inspiring young minds, earning pay that truly reflects their value.
• Doctors saving lives, serving with dignity, not exhaustion.
• Researchers are discovering cures.
• Artists, engineers, builders, creators,
• Millions of people dedicating themselves to growth, to creation, to beauty.

In addition, imagine the young people… Seeing a future worth staying for.

A future where their dreams can thrive, not vanish in the shadow of fear.

We can build this world if we choose life over destruction, hope over despair, and creation over war.

Imagine entire generations employed in creating beauty, knowledge, and progress… rather than being drawn into cycles of war.

Imagine the dignity…

Of a person who earns, creates, provides… and goes home tired from honest work, not from fear.

The dignity of parents who can feed their children without aid… who can plan for tomorrow without uncertainty… who can say: we are safe.

The dignity of nations that stand on education, culture, and innovation, not on weapons and ruins.

Imagine leadership by example…
Where ministers and deputies serve with responsibility, not privilege, where their rewards are fair, balanced, and never greater than those who heal, teach, and build society.

Imagine the stability…

– Streets where businesses grow instead of collapse.
– Economies that rise instead of bleed.
– Currencies that hold value.
– Futures that can be planned.

Imagine humanitarian organizations fully funded, empowered, and respected, able to act before tragedy, not after it.

Imagine something deeper… when dignity rises… when hope becomes real… when justice is felt… the roots of violence begin to fade.

Groups driven by anger, despair, and exclusion will lose the ground they stand on.

What you call militias, extremists, or armed movements— those who today traffic in weapons, in chaos, in fear— will find no environment to grow.

Because

• When people have work… they do not choose destruction.
• When people have dignity… they do not sell death.
• When societies are stable… there is no space for weapons trafficking… drug trade… money laundering… the spread of drones and tools of war… or the endless recycling of violence across borders.

Peace does not only stop wars… it dries its sources. It closes the markets of death… and opens the markets of life.

Imagine a world where:

– Investors choose hope over risk…
– Tourists choose discovery over fear…
– Young people choose to stay and build… not to flee and survive.
– Borders become connections, not frontlines.
– Governments are measured by how well their people live, not how well they fight.

This is what peace builds. Not just silence after war, but a system where life can finally stand, grow, and flourish.

Leaders of power…

You can change the direction of history.
– From destruction… to creation.
– From fear… to hope.
– From death… to life.

Close the chapter of war, and open a new one: a chapter of music, light, and humanity. Because the world we dream of… is the world you can build.
a plea from every heart still believing that life is worth choosing.

Fr. Joseph Soueid.

Amman Jordan.

Easter  Sunday / Palm Sunday.

5/4/2026

jsoueid@hotmail.com