Prayer for Peace

I watched "Kingdom of Heaven" yesterday in Cineleisure. Never felt so overwhelmed by themes in a movie for a long time.

How ugly Man can be trying to seize control of others' possessions! How fanaticism can drive Man to commit atrocities! How evil Man can be to use religion to mask their greed!

Even though I do not really comprehend the Crusades which happened almost 1000 years ago, the themes in the movie are not remote. Man never learns from history. History repeats itself because of Man's stupidity and ignorance.

Studying "Cold War in the Middle East" during the 'A' Levels often left me deep in thought. I can never understand why the followers of religions that see Jerusalem as the Holy Land cannot treat one another as brothers. Sometimes, it was even depressing then, when I read more about how these brothers fought in the 40-odd years.

Like what the lead character had said in gist in the movie, "Kingdom of Heaven" lies in the heart. It does not belong to anyone of them but everyone who believes in his faith.

However, seeing Lien Chen of KMT and Hu Jintao of CCP holding hands in the historical moment days ago has made me hopeful. Brothers who had fallen out 60 years ago finally decided to meet each other. There is still hope for peace in the Middle East, if they believe that Kingdom of Heaven is in their heart.