A new year.
Through social media we have been wishing each other to see this new year and… here we are! Here it is!
We thank God for this constant gift of life we experience every day.
We, Catholics, on this day, celebrate the Day of Prayer for Peace. Peace is – every year – our wish for the new year.
We could “translate” or explain this prayer for peace in many ways.
Personally I would like to use two words or two expressions… Peace as “an end to living in fear” and peace as “hope”.
We seem to live a life marked by fear:
- Fear about the future…
- Fear to talk…
- Fear of each other…
- Fear of foreigners...
- Fear of other religions…
- Fear of terrorist attacks…
(… you might add other fears you are experiencing). Where there is fear, there is no peace. This is our common experience.
Hope instead, in Pope Francis words:
“opens new horizons, makes one capable of dreaming what is not even imaginable. Hope makes one enter the darkness of an uncertain future to walk in the light. The virtue of hope is beautiful; it gives us so much strength to walk in life. However, it is a difficult way.”
I believe fear paralyses us, while hope makes us work and work together towards something new. It is much more than just not being afraid of something. It is making possible a different present and future.
With fear and without hope… we would be dead. With hope and without fear… fully alive!
May God grant us the gift of Peace!
