This Sunday’s first reading sounds like something that could have been written in the long-suffering, war-torn nation of Colombia: “How long, O LORD? I cry for help but you do not listen! I cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not intervene. Why do you let me see ruin; why must I look at misery? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and clamorous discord.” Yet that lament may well be coming to an end for the people of Colombia.

“I have to vote yes because peace depends on each of us. There are more of us who are good, and we simply have to keep fighting for a quiet country for our children and grandchildren. I don’t win anything if I continue to hate.”

It is estimated that the war has cost 220,000 lives and displaced some 5 million Colombians. The cost in terms of the country’s economic development is inestimable.