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We begin each new year with the feast of the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. The World Day of Peace also occurs on January 1.
Mary, the mother of God, gave birth to the prince of peace, who helped the human race to begin anew to work for peace.
Be persons of peace
Since New Year’s is a time to make resolutions, one resolution might be to continue to try to be persons of peace during the new year.
Isaiah 2:4 prophesies that when the Messiah comes, nations will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. One nation will not raise their swords against another, nor shall they train for war again.
In his Angelus message of 2013, Pope Francis exclaimed, “What a great day it will be when weapons are dismantled into instruments of work.”
Then the billions spent on weapons can help to feed the poor whom Pope Francis treasures as did his namesake, Francis of Assisi.
Dispute ends in peace
In 1902, war between Argentina and Chile seemed certain. At the last minute, an Argentine bishop appealed for peace between the two countries. A Chilean bishop joined the cause, and the dispute was sent to King Edward VII. He was able to settle the issue and war was avoided.
The unused guns from both countries were melted down, and the metal was used to help build a colossal statue of Christ, which now sits on a mountain range between Argentina and Chile. Some scholars dispute this meltdown, but the statue called Christ of the Andes certainly encourages peace. One of Christ’s hands holds a cross and the other hand is raised in giving a blessing. It could be called one of the wonders of the world.
Popes plead for peace
On October 4, 1965, St. Pope Paul VI, the first pope to visit our country, celebrated Mass at Yankee Stadium. He also addressed the United Nations, where he quoted President John F. Kennedy, who declared that “mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.”
As I watched Pope Paul VI on TV, his dramatic words were etched in my mind. He pleaded, “No more war, never again war! Drop your weapons. One cannot love with offensive weapons in hand.”
In a visit to the United States, Pope St. John Paul II repeated the same hopeful words, “No more war. War never again!” He also warned of the dangers of the nuclear arms race.
President Eisenhower’s words
In a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors (April 16, 1953), President Dwight Eisenhower stated, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
“This world is not spending money alone on arms alone. It is also spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.”
Eisenhower also stated, “In vast stretches of the earth, men awoke today in hunger. They will spend the day in unceasing toil. As the sun goes down, they will still know hunger. They will see suffering in the eyes of their children. Many despair that their labor will ever decently shelter their families or protect them against disease. So long as this is so, peace and freedom will be in danger throughout our world.”
Working for peace today
Today, violence includes domestic abuse, cyber bullying, and gossip. Refugees are also victims of violence.
The Holy Family who fled Herod’s wrath continues to identify refugees. Catholic writer George Weigel has stated, “More Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than all other centuries of Church history combined.”
On September 8, 2016, at the Casa Santa Marta Mass, Pope Francis explained that in small daily gestures, peace on a global scale can be achieved. Then he added, “Before speaking of peace, make sure your own heart is at peace. Is your family at peace? If you are not able to bring peace to your family, rectory, congregation, then words of peace are not enough.”
‘Prayer of St. Francis’
In the “Prayer of St. Francis,” we pray to be instruments of God’s peace wherever we are:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
Fr. Donald Lange is a pastor emeritus in the Diocese of Madison.