Peace
finds its roots in family
Hope is a virtue that Pope Benedict XVI has emphasized frequently in his
pontificate. Our Holy Father did so again in his message for the World
Day of Peace celebrated Jan. 1. Despite ample bad news around the world,
there is good reason to hope for peace in the world in 2008.
Peace, the Pope says in his message, finds its roots in stable families,
which begin in traditional marriage. “The family is the foundation
of society,” he says, because “it enables its members in decisive
ways to experience peace.” Wordless ways such as kind gestures by
parents and laughter among siblings teach us peace even before we master
words. Practiced within the family, peace blossoms through society to
all the world.
If we want peace, then, we must strengthen the family and guard it from
forces that threaten its stability. These threats proceed from a fog of
spiritual and moral confusion that even the strongest families face: greed,
resulting in consumerism; lust, in divorce; selfishness, in hardened hearts.
When we care for a sick or elderly parent, when we help a child with school
work, when we extend ourselves to visit a relative, when we forgive a
brother or sister, we are making peace in the world.
The optimism of this new year helps us to recommit ourselves to closer,
more loving families. We also face with new energy the challenges of developing
a national domestic policy that promotes adequate housing, employment,
education and health care for all families.
World peace is not only the job of diplomats toiling in far-off lands
or the statecraft of men and women at the highest levels of government.
For them, Pope Benedict writes of the necessity for nations engaged in
selling and accumulating weapons to demilitarize. He calls for nuclear-armed
nations to “resume with greater determination” stalled negotiations
for “progressive and mutually agreed dismantling of existing nuclear
weapons.” Both points should give leaders of our own nation pause
for reflection.
For us, the task of building peace begins with recognizing the unity of
the human family. We are each created by God and united in spirit with
His Son, Jesus Christ. Our earthly journey is built on hope, marked ever
more by the peace that is God’s gift and desire for His people.