A kid tells another: “Happy New Year.†The other replies, “Happy New Year to you, too,†and adds, “By the way, what is happiness?â€
For us Christians, happiness is Beatitude. Jesus is the Beatitude of God. Jesus, our Way, taught us that his eight beatitudes (Mt 5:3-10) are eight forms of happiness and paths to more happiness here and hereafter: the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who practice the beatitudes. “Blessed re the poor in spirit, the gentle, the merciful, the persecuted for the sake of justice… and the peacemakers
Among the eight beatitudes we have the beatitude of peace: “Blessed are the peacemakers.†To wish one another a Happy New Year means to wish one another a Peaceful New Year. On the first day of the New Year of 2013, we ask the Mother of God on her Feast day to bless all those we have wished a happy new year, to bless them with the gift of peace, and we ask her, too, to help us be peacemakers.
This is what our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI asks us today in his Message for the World Day of Peace entitled: Blessed are the peacemakers (see the Vatican’s web page: Benedict XVI, Messages). How to be, or become more, a peacemaker in our family, in our city, in our world?
To be able to be a peacemaker around us, we need to have peace in us – in our hearts: “Peace begins within our hearts†(Paul VI). Indeed, as the song exclaims: “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.â€
To have peace within ourselves, we need to have peace with God, for we are sinners and sin means lack of true peace in our hearts. Without inner peace we cannot give peace to others: no one can give what he or she does not have. With this interior peace we are ready to contribute to external peace: “Acquire inner peace and thousands around you will find liberation†(St. Seraphim).
Peace means harmony within and without. The five columns of peace are life, truth, freedom, justice and love, above all, love. Peace therefore requires working together in love, loving one another – all others. Benedict XVI tells us today: To work for peace includes “to say no to revenge, to recognize injustices, to accept apologies without looking for them, and finally, to forgive†(see Peace Message, 2013, no. 7). A Christmas card I received shouted at me in red color-letters: “To forgive and be forgiven make new every day.†In this Eucharist, when we offer peace to one another we forgive all and thus our 2013 is truly from its very first day a new year.
True peace means loving one another with unconditional and universal love: loving all human beings, in a particular way the ones who need it most: the poor and needy around us. The seven other beatitudes are permeated by the first: “Blessed are the poor in spirit,†that is, those who are detached from things, and care for and share something with the poor. The poor represent Christ in a special way: “I was hungry and you gave me food…; what you do to the least of my brothers and sisters you do it to me†(see Mt 25:31-46).
To be peacemakers, we who are sinners and tend to be selfish need to pray, for peace entails our human efforts, yes; but radically God’s grace: peace is a gift from God. On the Feast of the Motherhood of Mary, we ask the Mother of Jesus and our Mother to help us acquire internal peace and work for peace around us. We ask her, who is Regina Pacis, the Queen of Peace to bless us through her Rosary, which is by nature, according to Blessed John Paul II, “a prayer for peace.â€
Let me close my reflection on the World Day of Peace with the well-known prayer of St. Francis of Assisi, who lived a life of full peace: harmony within himself, with God, with all others, especially the poor, and with the whole creation – with brother son and sister moon, and also with sister death! We all pray:
Lord, / make me an instrument of your peace. /
Where there is hatred, / let me sow love. /
Where there is injury, / pardon. /
Where there is doubt, / faith. /
Where there is despair, / hope. /
Where there is darkness, / light. /
And where there is sadness, / joy. /
May you and your loved ones have a Happy New Year, that is, a Peaceful New Year! Saint Mary, Mother of God, pray for us!
Fr. Fausto Gomez, OP
St. Dominic’s Priory, Macau
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