ON THE FIRST day of the year we celebrate the World Day of Prayer for Peace. In the Biblical sense, peace is the essence of the Messiah’s gift for humanity – it represents that salvation brought to us by Jesus, the reconciliation of all people and creatures in the name of Christ. It is not without coincidence that on this day we also celebrate the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, for the peace Jesus brings is the same peace Mary experienced when she embraced Divine Love.
Peace is a goal which we must strive for incessantly in our personal relationships and, in a wider context, in world politics. No matter how small and insignificant we might be, each one of us can and should contribute toward this great ideal.
Since 1945, the year in which the Second World War ended, more than 30 conflicts have raged in various parts of our planet. Today, however, a new type of warfare is haunting us. We are no longer faced with nation rising against nation, but with a sharp increase in interreligious and interethnic conflict within the same country and, of course, with terrorism, which strikes stealthily, like a thief in the night.
However, in whatever form warfare comes, the result is always the same: untold suffering for millions and millions of people.
In this connection one cannot but condemn in the strongest possible terms the global arms trade. Every year hundreds of billions of dollars are earned by rich industrialists while they shamefully sell their weaponry to third world countries, in which a good part of the population is severely malnourished.
When we consider that the temptation to war is deeply entrenched in human nature, where can we find the strength to react to a debilitating sense powerlessness? We believe that Benedict’s reflection for the 40th World Peace Day offers a way out of this dark tunnel.
The theme of the Holy Father’s message is The Human Person: Heart of Peace. The title itself reveals Benedict’s conviction that respect for the dignity of the human person is fundamental for the realisation of peace. This human dignity, Benedict states, is, in fact, the “seal imprinted on man by God, created in His image and likeness”.
Today, the dignity of humankind is more than ever threatened by aberrant ideologies, assailed by the misguided use of science and technology, and contradicted by widespread, incongruent lifestyles.
The brief statement with which the Vatican press office announced the essence of the reflection chosen by the Holy Father for World Peace Day, stressed that “often science and technology – especially biomedicine – rather than serving the common good of humanity, are instrumental in serving an egotistical vision of progress and wellbeing”.
The statement noted that “propaganda and the growing acceptance of disordered lifestyles contrary to human dignity are weakening the hearts and minds of people to the point of extinguishing the desire for ordered and peaceful coexistence. All this represents a threat to humanity, because peace is in danger when human dignity is not respected, and when social coexistence does not seek the common good”.
The note stressed that to all these “challenges of the present time,” the Church, whose mission is to announce “the Gospel of Life, the central position of mankind in the universe and God’s love for humanity,” responds with a Christian anthropology based on three pillars. These pillars are, “human dignity, sociality and activity in the world, oriented in accordance with the order stamped by God on the universe, and with a view to an integral and solidary humanism” that tends towards the full development of the human person and of all people.
The Vatican press office statement concluded by affirming that “any offence to the person is a threat to peace; any threat to peace is an offence to the truth of the person: the human person is the heart of peace”.
Peace is created person to person, heart to heart, one day at a time.
May the New Year bring peace to you and your families, dear readers, even to those of you experiencing a lack of love or material goods. May you feel our prayers, for you are always in our thoughts.
Updated on October 06 2016