MESSAGE OF
HIS HOLINESS
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE
WORLD DAY OF PEACE
POPE BENEDICT XVI
FOR THE CELEBRATION OF THE
WORLD DAY OF PEACE
1 JANUARY
2012
EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE IN JUSTICE AND PEACE
1. The beginning of a new year, God’s gift to humanity, prompts me
to extend to all, with great confidence and affection, my heartfelt good wishes
that this time now before us may be marked concretely by justice and peace.
With what attitude should we look to the New Year? We find a very
beautiful image in Psalm 130. The Psalmist says that people of faith wait for
the Lord “more than those who watch for the morning” (v. 6); they wait for him
with firm hope because they know that he will bring light, mercy, salvation.
This waiting was born of the experience of the Chosen People, who realized that
God taught them to look at the world in its truth and not to be overwhelmed by
tribulation. I invite you to look to 2012 with this attitude of confident trust.
It is true that the year now ending has been marked by a rising sense of
frustration at the crisis looming over society, the world of labour and the
economy, a crisis whose roots are primarily cultural and anthropological. It
seems as if a shadow has fallen over our time, preventing us from clearly seeing
the light of day.
In this shadow, however, human hearts continue to wait for the
dawn of which the Psalmist speaks. Because this expectation is particularly
powerful and evident in young people, my thoughts turn to them and to the
contribution which they can and must make to society. I would like therefore to
devote this message for the XLV World Day of Peace to the theme of education:
“Educating Young People in Justice and Peace”, in the conviction that the
young, with their enthusiasm and idealism, can offer new hope to the world.
My Message is also addressed to parents, families and all those
involved in the area of education and formation, as well as to leaders in the
various spheres of religious, social, political, economic and cultural life and
in the media. Attentiveness to young people and their concerns, the ability to
listen to them and appreciate them, is not merely something expedient; it
represents a primary duty for society as a whole, for the sake of building a
future of justice and peace.
It is a matter of communicating to young people an appreciation
for the positive value of life and of awakening in them a desire to spend their
lives in the service of the Good. This is a task which engages each of us
personally.
The concerns expressed in recent times by many young people around
the world demonstrate that they desire to look to the future with solid hope. At
the present time, they are experiencing apprehension about many things: they
want to receive an education which prepares them more fully to deal with the
real world, they see how difficult it is to form a family and to find stable
employment; they wonder if they can really contribute to political, cultural and
economic life in order to build a society with a more human and fraternal
face.
It is important that this unease and its underlying idealism
receive due attention at every level of society. The Church looks to young
people with hope and confidence; she encourages them to seek truth, to defend
the common good, to be open to the world around them and willing to see “new
things” (Is 42:9; 48:6).
Educators
2. Education is the most interesting and difficult adventure in
life. Educating – from the Latin educere – means leading young people to
move beyond themselves and introducing them to reality, towards a fullness that
leads to growth. This process is fostered by the encounter of two freedoms, that
of adults and that of the young. It calls for responsibility on the part of the
learners, who must be open to being led to the knowledge of reality, and on the
part of educators, who must be ready to give of themselves. For this reason,
today more than ever we need authentic witnesses, and not simply people who
parcel out rules and facts; we need witnesses capable of seeing farther than
others because their life is so much broader. A witness is someone who fi rst
lives the life that he proposes to others.
Where does true education in peace and justice take place? First
of all, in the family, since parents are the first educators. The family is the
primary cell of society; “it is in the family that children learn the human and
Christian values which enable them to have a constructive and peaceful
coexistence. It is in the family that they learn solidarity between the
generations, respect for rules, forgiveness and how to welcome others.” (1)
The family is the first school in which we are trained in justice and peace.
We are living in a world where families, and life itself, are
constantly threatened and not infrequently fragmented. Working conditions which
are often incompatible with family responsibilities, worries about the future,
the frenetic pace of life, the need to move frequently to ensure an adequate
livelihood, to say nothing of mere survival – all this makes it hard to ensure
that children receive one of the most precious of treasures: the presence of
their parents. This presence makes it possible to share more deeply in the
journey of life and thus to pass on experiences and convictions gained with the
passing of the years, experiences and convictions which can only be communicated
by spending time together. I would urge parents not to grow disheartened! May
they encourage children by the example of their lives to put their hope before
all else in God, the one source of authentic justice and peace.
I would also like to address a word to those in charge of
educational institutions: with a great sense of responsibility may they ensure
that the dignity of each person is always respected and appreciated. Let them be
concerned that every young person be able to discover his or her own vocation
and helped to develop his or her God-given gifts. May they reassure families
that their children can receive an education that does not conflict with their
consciences and their religious principles.
Every educational setting can be a place of openness to the
transcendent and to others; a place of dialogue, cohesiveness and attentive
listening, where young people feel appreciated for their personal abilities and
inner riches, and can learn to esteem their brothers and sisters. May young
people be taught to savour the joy which comes from the daily exercise of
charity and compassion towards others and from taking an active part in the
building of a more humane and fraternal society.
I ask political leaders to offer concrete assistance to families
and educational institutions in the exercise of their right and duty to educate.
Adequate support should never be lacking to parents in their task. Let them
ensure that no one is ever denied access to education and that families are able
freely to choose the educational structures they consider most suitable for
their children. Let them be committed to reuniting families separated by the
need to earn a living. Let them give young people a transparent image of
politics as a genuine service to the good of all.
I cannot fail also to appeal to the world of the media to offer
its own contribution to education. In today’s society the mass media have a
particular role: they not only inform but also form the minds of their
audiences, and so they can make a significant contribution to the education of
young people. It is important never to forget that the connection between
education and communication is extremely close: education takes place through
communication, which influences, for better or worse, the formation of the
person.
Young people too need to have the courage to live by the same high
standards that they set for others. Theirs is a great responsibility: may they
find the strength to make good and wise use of their freedom. They too are
responsible for their education, including their education in justice and
peace!
Educating in truth and freedom
3. Saint Augustine once asked: “Quid enim fortius desiderat
anima quam veritatem? – What does man desire more deeply than truth?”(2) The
human face of a society depends very much on the contribution of education to
keep this irrepressible question alive. Education, indeed, is concerned with the
integral formation of the person, including the moral and spiritual dimension,
focused upon man’s final end and the good of the society to which he belongs.
Therefore, in order to educate in truth, it is necessary first and foremost to
know who the human person is, to know human nature. Contemplating the world
around him, the Psalmist reflects: “When I see the heavens, the work of your
hands, the moon and the stars which you arranged, what is man that you should
keep him in mind, mortal man that you care for him?” (Ps 8:4-5). This is
the fundamental question that must be asked: who is man? Man is a being
who bears within his heart a thirst for the infinite, a thirst for truth – a
truth which is not partial but capable of explaining life’s meaning – since he
was created in the image and likeness of God. The grateful recognition that life
is an inestimable gift, then, leads to the discovery of one’s own profound
dignity and the inviolability of every single person. Hence the first step in
education is learning to recognize the Creator’s image in man, and consequently
learning to have a profound respect for every human being and helping others to
live a life consonant with this supreme dignity. We must never forget that
“authentic human development concerns the whole of the person in every single
dimension”(3), including the transcendent dimension, and that the person cannot
be sacrificed for the sake of attaining a particular good, whether this be
economic or social, individual or collective.
Only in relation to God does man come to understand also the
meaning of human freedom. It is the task of education to form people in
authentic freedom. This is not the absence of constraint or the supremacy of
free will, it is not the absolutism of the self. When man believes himself to be
absolute, to depend on nothing and no one, to be able to do anything he wants,
he ends up contradicting the truth of his own being and forfeiting his freedom.
On the contrary, man is a relational being, who lives in relationship with
others and especially with God. Authentic freedom can never be attained
independently of God.
Freedom is a precious value, but a fragile one; it can be
misunderstood and misused. “Today, a particularly insidious obstacle to the task
of educating is the massive presence in our society and culture of that
relativism which, recognizing nothing as definitive, leaves as the ultimate
criterion only the self with its desires. And under the semblance of freedom it
becomes a prison for each one, for it separates people from one another, locking
each person into his or her own self. With such a relativistic horizon,
therefore, real education is not possible without the light of the truth; sooner
or later, every person is in fact condemned to doubting the goodness of his or
her own life and the relationships of which it consists, the validity of his or
her commitment to build with others something in common”(4).
In order to exercise his freedom, then, man must move beyond the
relativistic horizon and come to know the truth about himself and the truth
about good and evil. Deep within his conscience, man discovers a law that he did
not lay upon himself, but which he must obey. Its voice calls him to love and to
do what is good, to avoid evil and to take responsibility for the good he does
and the evil he commits(5). Thus, the exercise of freedom is intimately linked
to the natural moral law, which is universal in character, expresses the dignity
of every person and forms the basis of fundamental human rights and duties:
consequently, in the final analysis, it forms the basis for just and peaceful
coexistence.
The right use of freedom, then, is central to the promotion of
justice and peace, which require respect for oneself and others, including those
whose way of being and living differs greatly from one’s own. This attitude
engenders the elements without which peace and justice remain merely words
without content: mutual trust, the capacity to hold constructive dialogue, the
possibility of forgiveness, which one constantly wishes to receive but finds
hard to bestow, mutual charity, compassion towards the weakest, as well as
readiness to make sacrifices.
Educating in justice
4. In this world of ours, in which, despite the profession of good
intentions, the value of the person, of human dignity and human rights is
seriously threatened by the widespread tendency to have recourse exclusively to
the criteria of utility, profit and material possessions, it is important not to
detach the concept of justice from its transcendent roots. Justice, indeed, is
not simply a human convention, since what is just is ultimately determined not
by positive law, but by the profound identity of the human being. It is the
integral vision of man that saves us from falling into a contractual conception
of justice and enables us to locate justice within the horizon of solidarity and
love(6).
We cannot ignore the fact that some currents of modern culture,
built upon rationalist and individualist economic principles, have cut off the
concept of justice from its transcendent roots, detaching it from charity and
solidarity: “The ‘earthly city’ is promoted not merely by relationships of
rights and duties, but to an even greater and more fundamental extent by
relationships of gratuitousness, mercy and communion. Charity always manifests
God’s love in human relationships as well, it gives theological and salvific
value to all commitment for justice in the world”(7).
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they shall be satisfied” (Mt 5:6). They shall be satisfied because they
hunger and thirst for right relations with God, with themselves, with their
brothers and sisters, and with the whole of creation.
Educating in peace
5. “Peace is not merely the absence of war, and it is not limited
to maintaining a balance of powers between adversaries. Peace cannot be attained
on earth without safeguarding the goods of persons, free communication among
men, respect for the dignity of persons and peoples, and the assiduous practice
of fraternity.”8 We Christians believe that Christ is our true peace: in him, by
his Cross, God has reconciled the world to himself and has broken down the walls
of division that separated us from one another (cf. Eph 2:14-18); in him,
there is but one family, reconciled in love.
Peace, however, is not merely a gift to be received: it is also a
task to be undertaken. In order to be true peacemakers, we must educate
ourselves in compassion, solidarity, working together, fraternity, in being
active within the community and concerned to raise awareness about national and
international issues and the importance of seeking adequate mechanisms for the
redistribution of wealth, the promotion of growth, cooperation for development
and conflict resolution. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called
sons of God”, as Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:9).
Peace for all is the fruit of justice for all, and no one can
shirk this essential task of promoting justice, according to one’s particular
areas of competence and responsibility. To the young, who have such a strong
attachment to ideals, I extend a particular invitation to be patient and
persevering in seeking justice and peace, in cultivating the taste for what is
just and true, even when it involves sacrifice and swimming against the
tide.
Raising one’s eyes to God
6. Before the difficult challenge of walking the paths of justice
and peace, we may be tempted to ask, in the words of the Psalmist: “I lift up my
eyes to the mountains: from where shall come my help?” (Ps 121:1).
To all, and to young people in particular, I wish to say
emphatically: “It is not ideologies that save the world, but only a return to
the living God, our Creator, the guarantor of our freedom, the guarantor of what
is really good and true … an unconditional return to God who is the measure of
what is right and who at the same time is everlasting love. And what could ever
save us apart from love?”(9) Love takes delight in truth, it is the force that
enables us to make a commitment to truth, to justice, to peace, because it bears
all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (cf. 1
Cor 13:1-13).
Dear young people, you are a precious gift for society. Do not
yield to discouragement in the face of difficulties and do not abandon
yourselves to false solutions which often seem the easiest way to overcome
problems. Do not be afraid to make a commitment, to face hard work and
sacrifice, to choose the paths that demand fidelity and constancy, humility and
dedication. Be confident in your youth and its profound desires for happiness,
truth, beauty and genuine love! Live fully this time in your life so rich and so
full of enthusiasm.
Realize that you yourselves are an example and an inspiration to
adults, even more so to the extent that you seek to overcome injustice and
corruption and strive to build a better future. Be aware of your potential;
never become self-centred but work for a brighter future for all. You are never
alone. The Church has confidence in you, follows you, encourages you and wishes
to offer you the most precious gift she has: the opportunity to raise your eyes
to God, to encounter Jesus Christ, who is himself justice and peace.
All you men and women throughout the world, who take to heart the
cause of peace: peace is not a blessing already attained, but rather a goal to
which each and all of us must aspire. Let us look with greater hope to the
future; let us encourage one another on our journey; let us work together to
give our world a more humane and fraternal face; and let us feel a common
responsibility towards present and future generations, especially in the task of
training them to be people of peace and builders of peace. With these thoughts I
offer my reflections and I appeal to everyone: let us pool our spiritual, moral
and material resources for the great goal of “educating young people in justice
and peace”.
From the Vatican, 8 December 2011
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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