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!”