Pope Francis Sends Hope on the World Day of Peace 2025
As the global church celebrated the World Day of Peace on January 1st, Pope Francis addressed an inspiring message to the world. Titled, Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace,” it appeals for specific initiatives towards global peace and connects it to his declaration of 2025 as a Jubilee Year themed “Pilgrims of Hope.” Jubilees are traditionally proclaimed by the Catholic Church every 25 years as a reminder of God’s grace to encourage us to be in right relationship with God and each other through repentance, forgiveness, and renewal of one’s spiritual life.
On this year’s World Day of Peace, Pope Francis delivered four topics which oblige us to think more broadly about the scale of forgiveness and debts, both ours and others, and how God’s mercy encourages our active response of peace and hope. I offer this summary with reflection for thinking deeply and praying about this beginning of our pilgrimage of hope.
Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB4u22CqBtw&list=PLnS3YdZwNB2wZBvsPvvVXuGCJ0RnBbCzy&index=4
“Listening to the plea of an endangered humanity”
Pope Francis recalls the ancient practice of jubilee proclamation through the sounding of a ram horn “meant to restore God’s justice in every aspect of life: in the use of the land, in the possession of goods and in relationships with others” and equates today’s ram horn as the “desperate plea for help” of those oppressed in our world. He shares we must each feel responsible for the damage of our common home and global disparities, either directly or indirectly, and recognizes our desire to proclaim God’s justice through cultural and structural changes. He specifically mentions “the inhuman treatment meted out to migrants, environmental decay, the confusion willfully created by disinformation, the refusal to engage in any form of dialogue, and the immense resources spent on the industry of war.”
Which human dignity issue most concerns me and how can I become informed and advocate for change?
What can I do to protect migrating families from harm?
Are there more accurate and diverse sources I could use for civil discourse on local and global issues?
Would my family be willing to learn about Laudato Si at the dinner table and brainstorm ways to better care for God’s creation?
A cultural change: all of us are debtors
Pope Francis reminds us that Creation is for everyone, not just the privileged. He says through gratitude, we can recognize gifts from God’s and through the saving forgiveness of Jesus Christ, the Lord offers life. “Loosing sight” of our relationship to the Father, can lead to a mentality that profits from injustices in poorer countries including exploitation of human and natural resources. Solidarity and justice are necessary to square this “ecological debt” burdening some. Change will come about when we recognize we need and are indebted to one another.
Am I aware of how my consumption of goods and technology affects the disparity of living conditions of my own and those living in other countries?
On this topic, Pope Francis quotes St. Basil of Caesarea as saying, “Tell me, what things belong to you? Where did you find them to make them part of your life? … Did you not come forth naked from the womb of your mother? Will you not return naked to the ground? Where did your property come from? If you say that it comes to you naturally by luck, you would deny God by not recognizing the Creator and being grateful to the Giver”
A journey of hope: three proposals
Pope Francis encourages us to stop and consider God’s abundant grace and mercy and be filled with the resulting hope so that we may forgive those to trespass against us and extend that same hope of God’s mercy. “Hope overflows in generosity; it is free of calculation, makes no hidden demands, is unconcerned with gain, but aims at one thing alone: to raise up those who have fallen, to heal hearts that are broken and to set us free from every kind of bondage.” To that end, Pope Francis offers us three proposals “capable of restoring dignity to the lives of entire peoples and enabling them to set them out anew on the journey of hope.”
First, the renewed appeal of Saint John Paul II on the reducing or cancelling international debt threatening many nations in recognition of their ecological debt and building a new global financial framework based on solidarity.
Second, respect for the dignity of life from conception to natural death, specifically ending the death penalty which “eliminates every human hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation”
Third, following Saint Paul VI and Benedict XVI, using a portion of money earmarked for war armaments to establish a global fund to “eradicate hunger” and for “educational activities aimed at promoting sustainable development and combating climate change” for the purposes of building hope and peace in those feeling hopeless or wanting to avenge the loss of a loved one.
Do my financial investments and companies I bring my business to seek to close gaps in wealth and social outcomes?
In what ways am I comfortable advocating for life and supporting the lives of those on death row and those born to unprepared parents?
How do I prioritize war expenditures versus social programs for those whose families are torn by war?
The goal of peace
Pope Francis calls 2025 to be the year of peace. He shares that the reward of peace is true for those seeking hope, justice, and peace. Small gestures of peace, such as a smile, bring us closer to our vision of a fraternal world. In addition to new year wishes to global leaders and all people of good will, His Holiness concludes with a prayer.
Forgive us our trespasses, Lord,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
In this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace,
the peace that you alone can give
to those who let themselves be disarmed in heart,
to those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters,
to those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you,
and to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor.
What small gestures of kindness can I offer others today?
“Peace does not only come with the end of wars but with the dawn of a new world, a world in which we realize that we are different, closer and more fraternal than we ever thought possible.” – Pope Francis
