(Note to our readers: With this entry, Everyday for Life Canada will take a Christmas break and return in the New Year. We wish you all a holy and blessed Christmas. Happy New Year to everyone!)In his Christmas Message of 1959, Pope John XXIII offered a very insightful statement about achieving peace: His address urges us to work for peace of the heart, in our social relations and in the international sphere. At the time, the world was concerned about the build up of nuclear arms and that the crisis could lead to the destruction of the planet. The Pope's observations continue to be just as relevant today because the obstacles to peace, human malice and greed, remain the same. For human beings to experience a true conversion to peace, they must put Christ at the centre of their lives. I hope you read the entire statement. Here's a brief selection of the message:
"Peace is a gift of God beyond compare. Likewise, it is the object of man's highest desire. It is moreover indivisible. None of the lineaments which make up its unmistakable appearance can be ignored or excluded.
"In addition, since the men of our time have not completely carried into effect the conditions of peace, the result has been that God's paths toward peace have no meeting point with those of man. Hence there is the abnormal situation of this postwar period which has created, as it were, two blocs with all their uneasy conditions. There is not a state of war, but neither is there peace, the thing which the nations ardently desire.
"At all times, because true peace is indivisible in its various aspects, it will not succeed in establishing itself on the social and international planes unless it is also, and in the first place, an interior fact. This requires then before all else—it is necessary to repeat—'men of good will.' These are precisely those to whom the angels of Bethlehem announced peace: 'Peace among men of good will.' (Luke 2:14). Indeed they alone can give reality to the conditions contained in the definition of peace given by St. Thomas: The ordered harmony of citizens and therefore order and harmony.
"But how will true peace be able to put forth the two-fold blossom of order and concord if the persons who hold positions of public responsibility, before selecting the advantages and risks of their decisions, fail to recognize themselves as persons subject to the eternal moral laws?
"It will be necessary again and again to remove from the path the obstacles placed by the malice of man. And the presence of these obstacles is noted in the propaganda of immorality, in social injustice, in forced unemployment, in poverty contrasted with the luxury of those who can indulge in dissipation, in the dreadful lack of proportion between the technical and moral progress of nations, and in the unchecked armaments race, where there has yet to be a glimpse of a serious possibility of solving the problem of disarmament."
(Here's an email I received regarding this post, and I publish it as a comment. Thank you Frank for writing and your willingness to share your ideas with others.)
ReplyDeleteJesus Is The Real Reason For The Season
Even though this so called modern world is trying so hard to eliminate God, God the Father still loves us more than we can ever truly appreciate or understand this unconditional love God has for all of us. God came to us as a baby in a manger over two thousand years ago. Why did God manifest himself as a tiny baby? Joseph had decided to divorce Mary informally after finding out she was pregnant until an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. In Matthew 20:21 the angel said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him Jesus, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins." In Matthew 23: "Look! the virgin is with child and will give birth to a son whom they will call Immanuel", a name which means 'God-is-with-us'.
God so loved mankind that even at the birth of Jesus we are being told, "he is the one who is to save his people from their sins". No greater gift can God give than this to give mankind his only begotten Son who will save his people from their sins. God also sent the angel Gabriel to Mary to prepare her for the birth of her son Jesus. In Luke 34:35 Mary said to the angel, "But how can this come about since I have no knowledge of Man? The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son of God."
Just think of the tremedous faith and trust in God that both St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin Mary having dreams that showed Mary conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. Both said yes to God. When someone comes up to you and says happy holidays let them know that this holiday is Christmas. We are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ not just some holiday. This is the same Jesus who will give his life on calvary for the remission of our sins and our eternal salvation.
In these perilous and turbulent economic times let's not loose fact that we have a God who loves us and will forgive us for our sins all because that tiny infant Jesus who is God and manifested himself as God the Son over two thousand years ago. Remember to tell everyone Merry Christmas because Jesus is the real reason for the season. Have a Merry and Blessed Christmas. God bless you all.