MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE CELEBRATION
OF THE
53rd WORLD DAY OF PEACE 1 JANUARY 2020
53rd WORLD DAY OF PEACE 1 JANUARY 2020
PEACE AS A JOURNEY OF HOPE:
DIALOGUE, RECONCILIATION AND ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION
DIALOGUE, RECONCILIATION AND ECOLOGICAL CONVERSION
1. Peace, a
journey of hope in the face of obstacles and trial
Peace is a great and
precious value, the object of our hope and the aspiration of the entire human
family. As a human attitude, our hope for peace is marked by an existential
tension that makes it possible for the present, with all its difficulties, to
be “lived and accepted if it leads towards a goal, if we can be sure of this
goal, and if this goal is great enough to justify the effort of the journey”.[1] Hope
is thus the virtue that inspires us and keeps us moving forward, even when
obstacles seem insurmountable.
Our human community
bears, in its memory and its flesh, the scars of ever more devastating wars and
conflicts that affect especially the poor and the vulnerable. Entire nations
find it difficult to break free of the chains of exploitation and corruption
that fuel hatred and violence. Even today, dignity, physical integrity,
freedom, including religious freedom, communal solidarity and hope in the
future are denied to great numbers of men and women, young and old. Many are
the innocent victims of painful humiliation and exclusion, sorrow and
injustice, to say nothing of the trauma born of systematic attacks on their
people and their loved ones.
The terrible trials of
internal and international conflicts, often aggravated by ruthless acts of
violence, have an enduring effect on the body and soul of humanity. Every war
is a form of fratricide that destroys the human family’s innate vocation to
brotherhood.
War, as we know, often
begins with the inability to accept the diversity of others, which then fosters
attitudes of aggrandizement and domination born of selfishness and pride,
hatred and the desire to caricature, exclude and even destroy the other. War is
fueled by a perversion of relationships, by hegemonic ambitions, by abuses of
power, by fear of others and by seeing diversity as an obstacle. And these, in
turn, are aggravated by the experience of war.
As I observed
during my recent Apostolic Journey to Japan, our world is paradoxically marked by “a perverse dichotomy that
tries to defend and ensure stability and peace through a false sense of
security sustained by a mentality of fear and mistrust, one that ends up
poisoning relationships between peoples and obstructing any form of dialogue.
Peace and international stability are incompatible with attempts to build upon
the fear of mutual destruction or the threat of total annihilation. They can be
achieved only on the basis of a global ethic of solidarity and cooperation in
the service of a future shaped by interdependence and shared responsibility in
the whole human family of today and tomorrow”.[2]
Every threatening
situation feeds mistrust and leads people to withdraw into their own safety
zone. Mistrust and fear weaken relationships and increase the risk of violence,
creating a vicious circle that can never lead to a relationship of peace. Even
nuclear deterrence can only produce the illusion of security.
We cannot claim to
maintain stability in the world through the fear of annihilation, in a volatile
situation, suspended on the brink of a nuclear abyss and enclosed behind walls
of indifference. As a result, social and economic decisions are being made that
lead to tragic situations where human beings and creation itself are discarded
rather than protected and preserved.[3] How,
then, do we undertake a journey of peace and mutual respect? How do we break
the unhealthy mentality of threats and fear? How do we break the current
dynamic of distrust?
We need to pursue a
genuine fraternity based on our common origin from God and exercised in
dialogue and mutual trust. The desire for peace lies deep within the human
heart, and we should not resign ourselves to seeking anything less than this.
2.
Peace, a journey of listening based on memory, solidarity and fraternity
The Hibakusha,
the survivors of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, are among
those who currently keep alive the flame of collective conscience, bearing
witness to succeeding generations to the horror of what happened in August 1945
and the unspeakable sufferings that have continued to the present time. Their
testimony awakens and preserves the memory of the victims, so that the
conscience of humanity may rise up in the face of every desire for dominance
and destruction. “We cannot allow present and future generations to lose the
memory of what happened here. It is a memory that ensures and encourages the
building of a more fair and fraternal future”.[4]
Like the Hibakusha,
many people in today’s world are working to ensure that future generations will
preserve the memory of past events, not only in order to prevent the same
errors or illusions from recurring, but also to enable memory, as the fruit of
experience, to serve as the basis and inspiration for present and future
decisions to promote peace.
What is more, memory is
the horizon of hope. Many times, in the darkness of wars and conflicts, the
remembrance of even a small gesture of solidarity received can lead to
courageous and even heroic decisions. It can unleash new energies and kindle
new hope in individuals and communities.
Setting out on a journey
of peace is a challenge made all the more complex because the interests at
stake in relationships between people, communities and nations, are numerous
and conflicting. We must first appeal to people’s moral conscience and to
personal and political will. Peace emerges from the depths of the human heart
and political will must always be renewed, so that new ways can be found to
reconcile and unite individuals and communities.
The world does not need
empty words but convinced witnesses, peacemakers who are open to a dialogue
that rejects exclusion or manipulation. In fact, we cannot truly achieve peace
without a convinced dialogue between men and women who seek the truth beyond
ideologies and differing opinions. Peace “must be built up continually”;[5] it
is a journey made together in constant pursuit of the common good, truthfulness
and respect for law. Listening to one another can lead to mutual understanding
and esteem, and even to seeing in an enemy the face of a brother or sister.
The peace process thus
requires enduring commitment. It is a patient effort to seek truth and justice,
to honour the memory of victims and to open the way, step by step, to a shared
hope stronger than the desire for vengeance. In a state based on law, democracy
can be an important paradigm of this process, provided it is grounded in
justice and a commitment to protect the rights of every person, especially the
weak and marginalized, in a constant search for truth.[6] This
is a social undertaking, an ongoing work in which each individual makes his or
her contribution responsibly, at every level of the local, national and global
community.
As Saint Paul VI pointed
out, these “two aspirations, to equality and to participation, seek to promote
a democratic society… This calls for an education to social life, involving not
only the knowledge of each person’s rights, but also its necessary correlative:
the recognition of his or her duties with regard to others. The sense and
practice of duty are themselves conditioned by the capacity for self-mastery
and by the acceptance of responsibility and of the limits placed upon the
freedom of individuals or the groups”.[7]
Divisions within a society,
the increase of social inequalities and the refusal to employ the means of
ensuring integral human development endanger the pursuit of the common good.
Yet patient efforts based on the power of the word and of truth can help foster
a greater capacity for compassion and creative solidarity.
In our Christian
experience, we constantly remember Christ, who gave his life to reconcile us to
one another (cf. Rom 5:6-11). The Church shares fully in the
search for a just social order; she continues to serve the common good and to
nourish the hope for peace by transmitting Christian values and moral teaching,
and by her social and educational works.
3. Peace, a
journey of reconciliation in fraternal communion
The Bible, especially in
the words of the Prophets, reminds individuals and peoples of God’s covenant
with humanity, which entails renouncing our desire to dominate others and
learning to see one another as persons, sons and daughters of God, brothers and
sisters. We should never encapsulate others in what they may have said or done,
but value them for the promise that they embody. Only by choosing the path of
respect can we break the spiral of vengeance and set out on the journey of
hope.
We are guided by the
Gospel passage that tells of the following conversation between Peter and
Jesus: “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As
many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but
seventy times seven” (Mt 18:21-22). This path of reconciliation is
a summons to discover in the depths of our heart the power of forgiveness and
the capacity to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters. When we learn
to live in forgiveness, we grow in our capacity to become men and women of
peace.
What is true of peace in
a social context is also true in the areas of politics and the economy, since
peace permeates every dimension of life in common. There can be no true peace
unless we show ourselves capable of developing a more just economic system.
As Pope Benedict XVI said ten years ago in his Encyclical Letter Caritas in Veritate, “in order to defeat underdevelopment, action is required not
only on improving exchange-based transactions and implanting public welfare
structures, but above all on graduallyincreasing openness, in a world context,
to forms of economic activity marked by quotas of gratuitousness and communion”
(No. 39).
4. Peace, a
journey of ecological conversion
“If a mistaken
understanding of our own principles has at times led us to justify mistreating
nature, to exercise tyranny over creation, to engage in war, injustice and acts
of violence, we believers should acknowledge that by so doing we were not
faithful to the treasures of wisdom which we have been called to protect and
preserve”.[8]
Faced with the
consequences of our hostility towards others, our lack of respect for our
common home or our abusive exploitation of natural resources – seen only as a
source of immediate profit, regardless of local communities, the common good
and nature itself – we are in need of an ecological conversion. The
recent Synod on the Pan-Amazon Region moves us to make a pressing renewed call for a peaceful
relationship between communities and the land, between present and past,
between experience and hope.
This journey of
reconciliation also calls for listening and contemplation of the world that God
has given us as a gift to make our common home. Indeed, natural resources, the
many forms of life and the earth itself have been entrusted to us “to till and
keep” (Gen 1:15), also for future generations, through the
responsible and active participation of everyone. We need to change the way we
think and see things, and to become more open to encountering others and
accepting the gift of creation, which reflects the beauty and wisdom of its
Creator.
All this gives us deeper
motivation and a new way to dwell in our common home, to accept our
differences, to respect and celebrate the life that we have received and share,
and to seek living conditions and models of society that favour the continued
flourishing of life and the development of the common good of the entire human
family.
The ecological
conversion for which we are appealing will lead us to a new way of looking at
life, as we consider the generosity of the Creator who has given us the earth
and called us to a share it in joy and moderation. This conversion must be
understood in an integral way, as a transformation of how we relate to our
sisters and brothers, to other living beings, to creation in all its rich
variety and to the Creator who is the origin and source of all life. For
Christians, it requires that “the effects of their encounter with Jesus Christ
become evident in their relationship with the world around them”.[9]
5. “We obtain all
that we hope for”[10]
The journey of
reconciliation calls for patience and trust. Peace will not be obtained unless
it is hoped for.
In the first place, this
means believing in the possibility of peace, believing that others need peace
just as much as we do. Here we can find inspiration in the love that God has
for each of us: a love that is liberating, limitless, gratuitous and tireless.
Fear is frequently a
source of conflict. So it is important to overcome our human fears and
acknowledge that we are needy children in the eyes of the One who loves us and
awaits us, like the father of the prodigal son (cf. Lk 15:11-24).
The culture of fraternal encounter shatters the culture of conflict. It makes
of every encounter a possibility and a gift of God’s generous love. It leads us
beyond the limits of our narrow horizons and constantly encourages us to a live
in a spirit of universal fraternity, as children of the one heavenly Father.
For the followers of
Christ, this journey is likewise sustained by the sacrament of Reconciliation,
given by the Lord for the remission of sins of the baptized. This sacrament of
the Church, which renews individuals and communities, bids us keep our gaze
fixed on Jesus, who reconciled “all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by
making peace through the blood of his cross” (Col 1:20). It
requires us to set aside every act of violence in thought, word and deed,
whether against our neighbours or against God’s creation.
The grace of God our
Father is bestowed as unconditional love. Having received his forgiveness in
Christ, we can set out to offer that peace to the men and women of our time.
Day by day, the Holy Spirit prompts in us ways of thinking and speaking that
can make us artisans of justice and peace.
May the God of peace
bless us and come to our aid.
May Mary, Mother of the
Prince of Peace and Mother of all the peoples of the earth, accompany and
sustain us at every step of our journey of reconciliation.
And may all men and
women who come into this world experience a life of peace and develop fully the
promise of life and love dwelling in their heart.
From
the Vatican, 8 December 2019
Franciscus
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