Peace Requires the Force of Meekness

Yesterday our Holy Father Pope Francis celebrated the Church's annual World Day of Peace. In his message for this annual day of prayer, Pope Francis emphasized the need for all of us to grow in our sense of fraternity with each other as the essential foundation and pathway to peace. Noting the challenges of globalization and the easier means of communication, the Pope rightly pointed out that globalization makes us neighbors but it does not make us brothers. He noted with concern the new ideologies characterized by rampant individualism, egocentrism and materialistic consumerism, and calls us to consider how we might grow in fraternal compassion for our fellow humanity. You can read the entire message for the World Day of Peace here.

“On this, the first day of the year”, said the Holy Father, “may the Lord help us to set out more decisively on the path of justice and peace; may the Holy Spirit act in our hearts, loosening bonds and warming hardened hearts so that they open up to the tenderness and weakness of the Child Jesus. Peace requires the force of meekness, the non-violent strength of the truth and of love."