YOU ARE ALL BROTHERS
AND SISTERS
POPE FRANCIS’ MESSAGE
FOR THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE
January 2014
A summary by David
Harold-Barry SJ
“Globalisation
makes us neighbours but does not make us brothers and sisters.” Francis begins
his message with these striking words of Pope Benedict. The speed of travel and
the reach of the internet enable us to know what is happening in China or Syria
but it does not immediately make us real brothers and sisters to those who live
there. This is the simple theme of Pope Francis’ letter for peace: that we live
“fraternity”, that is, that we discover what it really means to be brothers and
sisters of one loving Father.
He begins
with the story of Cain and Abel, the first rejection of fraternity. Why did
Cain kill his brother? Why do we kill each other today? Cain’s disdainful
response to God - “Am I my brother’s keeper?” – is echoed across the world
today where the powerful do not care for the weak but regard them as objects to
be exploited.
Francis
reminds us, “you are all brothers and sisters” (Matt 23:8-9), children of one
loving Father. We are reconciled to one another and to God through the
self-giving of Jesus, the Son of God. Realising this opens the way to peace.
Why should people in one family quarrel and repeat Cain’s outrage? The pope
calls “everyone” to struggle against this evil we find in ourselves and in the
world.
He quotes
Pope John Paul’s words about solidarity, forged in the shipyards of Gdansk, as
“a new criterion for interpreting the world.” The “haves” are called to share
with the “have-nots” because – and here he is quoting Thomas Aquinas’ words
which were taken up by the Second Vatican Council – property is “common in the
sense that it should accrue to the benefit not only of the owner but of others”
(GS #69). While there is a legitimate
sense in which property can be “private” the goods of the earth are ultimately
for the benefit of everyone. It is a new Cain-like outrage if some suffer and
die of starvation while others have such an abundance that they throw away
mountains of unused food.
Francis
calls for an attitude of “detachment” so that people can rise above
possessiveness and share what they have with those who have nothing. This
applies to individuals and to states. He encourages the traditional virtues we
were taught in the old catechisms and which we never understood: “prudence,
temperance, justice and strength (fortitude).” They amount to a sense of
uniting myself with the “big picture”, recognising the harmony in creation and
using all my powers – “all your mind, all your heart and all your strength” -
to reach out to others.
Such a
thrust, the pope tells us, will “extinguish war.” War, he told President Putin of Russia, is “a
concrete refusal to pursue the great economic and social goals that the
international community has set itself.” While commending the agreements and
treaties nations achieve, what is always needed is a conversion of heart if we
are to make lasting progress.
A key
expression of this is where “citizens feel themselves represented by public
authorities”, that is, where governments serve the common good. Otherwise
“partisan interests” disfigure relationships and the pope goes on to list the
crimes that destroy fraternity. Selfishness, he says, shows itself in
corruption and organised crime. And he mentions drug abuse, devastating natural
resources, exploiting labour, speculating in money, forcing young people into
prostitution, trafficking in human beings especially migrants, abuses against
minors, slavery and inhumane conditions in prisons. All these things cry out to
heaven as they impede movement towards that fraternity which brings peace.
Francis
reminds us that the earth produces enough to feed everyone, yet millions suffer
and die of starvation. “I would like to remind everyone of the universal
destination of all goods – one of the fundamental principles of the Church’s social
teaching”. “Christ has come to the world so as to bring us divine grace, that
is, the possibility of sharing in his life. This entails weaving a fabric of
fraternal relationships marked by reciprocity, forgiveness and complete
self-giving.” And he concludes, “every activity therefore must be distinguished
by an attitude of service to persons, especially those furthest away and less
known. Service is the soul of that fraternity that builds up peace.”
And his
final word: “May Mary, the Mother of Jesus, help us to understand!”
