January 1, 2004
Happy New Year
(Luke 2:16-21)
Happy New Year everyone! I hope and pray that this new year holds many
blessings for you, that it is a time of grace and healing and light and
peace for you and your families and the whole world, that we might all
turn back again to God and follow Jesus ever more faithfully.
Pope John Paul II has declared New Year’s Day to be World Peace
Day, and every year he writes a long letter to the world, and I would
like to offer an excerpt of his message:
“All of you, hear the humble appeal of one who cries out: today
at the beginning of the new year, peace remains possible. And if peace
is possible, it is also a duty. Humanity needs now more than ever to rediscover
the path of concord, overwhelmed as it is by selfishness and hatred, by
the thirst for power and the lust for vengeance.”
“We Christians see the commitment to educate ourselves and others
to peace as something at the very heart of our religion. For Christians,
in fact, to proclaim peace is to announce Christ who is our peace. It
is to announce his Gospel, which is a Gospel of peace. It is to call all
people to the beatitude of being ‘peacemakers.’ [As we read
in the Gospel,] ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the sons and daughters of God.’ How could this saying, which
is a summons to work in the immense field of peace, find such a powerful
echo in the human heart if it did not correspond to an irrepressible yearning
and hope dwelling within us? And why else would peacemakers be called
children of God, if not because God is by nature the God of peace?”
“[Therefore,] love must enliven every sector of human life and extend
to the international order. Only a ‘civilization of love’
will be able to enjoy authentic and lasting peace. Love conquers all.
Yes, dear brothers and sisters throughout the world, in the end, love
will be victorious! Let everyone be committed to hastening this victory
of love. For it is the deepest hope of every human heart.”
I think his statement is beautiful, powerful and helpful, encouraging
the world to reject war and violence and hasten the victory of love by
joining in the work and duty of peace.
My hope and prayer is that we can all turn back to God and move from darkness
to light, from war to peace, from hate to love, from doubt to faith, from
despair to hope, and from sadness to joy and welcome God’s reign
of love, nonviolence and peace on earth. Happy New Year!
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