The Evangelical Pope | Suffering for Doing Good

Each week we let Saint Pope John Paul II share meaningful signposts to spark socio-economic resolves through justice and righteousness combined with mercy and compassion; in short, love

8-12 Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that's your job, to bless. You'll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

Whoever wants to embrace life
       And see the day fill up with good,
Here's what you do:
       Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
       Run after peace for all you're worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
       Listening and responding well to what he's asked;
But he turns his back
       On those who do evil things.

__ 1 Peter 3:8-12 (The Message Translation)

Basilica of Saint Francis, Assisi, Italy – 27 October 1986 | There is no peace without a passionate love for peace. There is no peace without a relentless determination to achieve peace.

Peace awaits its prophets. Together, we have filled our eyes with visions of peace: they release energies for a new language of peace, for new gestures of peace. These gestures will shatter the fatal chains of divisions inherited from history or spawned by modern ideologies.

Peace awaits its builders. Let us stretch our hands toward our brothers and sisters to encourage them to build peace upon the four pillars of truth, justice, love, and freedom.

Peace is a workshop open to all and not just to specialists, savants, and strategists. Peace is a universal responsibility: it comes about through a thousand little acts in daily life. By their customary way of living with others, people choose for or against peace. We entrust the cause of peace, especially to the young. May young people help to free history from the wrong paths along which humanity strays.

Peace is in the hands not only of individuals but of nations. The nations have the honor of basing their peacemaking activity upon the conviction of the sacredness of human dignity and the recognition of the unquestionable equality of people with one another. We earnestly invite the leaders of the nations and international organizations to be untiring in bringing in dialogue structures wherever peace is threatened or already compromised. We support their often exhausting efforts to maintain or restore peaœ. We renew our encouragement to the United Nations Organization that it may respond fully to the breadth and height of its universal mission of peace.

In answer to my appeal from Lyons in France, on the day we Catholics celebrate as the feast of Saint Francis, we hope that arms have fallen silent and that attacks have ceased. This would be the first significant result of the spiritual efficacy of prayer. This appeal has been shared by many hearts and lips everywhere in the world, especially where people suffer from war and its consequences.

It is vital to choose peace and the means to obtain it. Peace, so frail in health, demands constant and intensive care. Along this path, we shall advance with sure and redoubled steps, for there is no doubt that people have and never had so many means for building true peace as today. Humanity has entered an era of increased solidarity and hunger for social justice. This is our chance. It is also our task, which prayer helps us to face.

Excerpted from:

PASTORAL VISIT TO PERUGIA AND ASSISI

ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES AND ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES AND OF THE WORLD RELIGIONS, Basilica of Saint Francis, 27 October 1986

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/speeches/1986/october/documents/hf_jp-ii_spe_19861027_prayer-peace-assisi-final.html

FULL TEXT

My Brothers and Sisters,
Heads and Representatives of the Christian Churches
and Ecclesial Communities and of the World Religions,
Dear Friends,

1. IN CONCLUDING this World Day of Prayer for Peace, to which you have come from many parts of the world, kindly accepting my invitation, I would like now to express my feelings, as a brother and friend, but also as a believer in Jesus Christ, and, in the Catholic Church, the first witness of faith in him.

Concerning the last prayer, the Christian one, in the series we have all heard, I profess here anew my conviction, shared by all Christians, that in Jesus Christ, as Saviour of all, true peace is to be found, "peace to those who are far off and peace to those who are near." His birth was greeted by the angels' song: "Glory to God in the highest and peace among men with whom he is pleased." He preached love among all, even among foes, proclaimed blessed those who work for peace, and brought about reconciliation between heaven and earth through his Death and Resurrection. To use an expression of Paul the Apostle: "He is our peace."

2. in fact, my faith conviction has made me turn to you, representatives of the Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities and World Religions, in deep love and respect.

We share many convictions with other Christians, particularly concerning peace.

With the World Religions, we share a common respect for and obedience to conscience, which teaches us to seek the truth, love and serve all individuals and people, and therefore make peace among nations.

Yes, we all hold a conscience, and obedience to the voice of conscience is essential in the road towards a better and peaceful world.

Could it be otherwise, since all men and women in this world have a common nature, origin, and destiny?

Suppose there are many significant differences among us. In that case, there is also a common ground, whence to operate together to solve this dramatic challenge of our age: true peace or catastrophic war?

3. Yes, there is the dimension of prayer, which, in the authentic diversity of religions, tries to express communication with a Power above all our human forces.

Peace depends on this Power, which we call God, and as Christians believe, has revealed himself in Christ.

This is the meaning of this World Day of Prayer.

               For the first time in history, we have come together from everywhere, Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities, and World Religions, in this sacred place dedicated to Saint Francis, to witness before the world, each according to his conviction, the transcendent quality of peace.

               The form and content of our prayers are very different, as we have seen, and there can be no question of reducing them to a common denominator.

               4. Yes, in this very difference, we have perhaps discovered that something binds us together regarding the problem of peace and its relation to religious commitment.

The challenge of peace, as it is presently posed to every human conscience, is the problem of a reasonable quality of life for all, the problem of survival for humanity, and the problem of life and death.

In the face of such a problem, two things seem to have supreme importance, and both are common.

               The first is the inner imperative of the moral conscience, which urges us to respect, protect, and promote human life, from the womb to the deathbed, for individuals and people, but especially for the weak, the destitute, the derelict: the imperative to overcome selfishness, greed and the spirit of vengeance.

               The second common thing is the conviction that peace goes much beyond human efforts, particularly in the present plight of the world, and therefore that its source and realization is to be sought in that Reality beyond all of us.

This is why each of us prays for peace. Even if we think, as we do, that the relation between Reality and the gift of peace is different, according to our respective religious convictions, we all affirm that such a relation exists.

This is what we express by praying for it.

I humbly repeat here my conviction: peace bears the name of Jesus Christ.

5. But, simultaneously and in the same breath, I am ready to acknowledge that Catholics have not always been faithful to this affirmation of faith. We have not always been "peacemakers".

For ourselves, therefore, but also perhaps, in a sense, for all, his encounter at Assisi is an act of penance. We have prayed, each in his way, fasted and marched together.

In this way, we have tried to open our hearts to the divine reality beyond us and to our fellow men and women.

Yes, while we have fasted, we have kept in mind the sufferings that senseless wars have brought about and are still bringing about humanity. We have tried to be spiritually close to the millions who are the victims of hunger worldwide.

While we have walked in silence, we have reflected on the path our human family treads: either in hostility if we fail to accept one another in love or as a shared journey to our lofty destiny if we realize that other people are our brothers and sisters. The fact that we have come to Assisi from various quarters of the world is a sign of this common path that humanity is called to tread. Either we learn to walk together in peace and harmony or drift apart and ruin ourselves and others. We hope this pilgrimage to Assisi has taught us anew to be aware of humanity's common origin and shared destiny. Let us see in it an anticipation of what God would like the developing history of humanity to be: a fraternal journey in which we accompany one another toward the transcendent goal he sets for us.

Prayer, Fasting, Pilgrimage

6. This Day at Assisi has helped us become more aware of our religious commitments. But it has also made the world, looking at us through the media, more aware of the responsibility of each religion regarding problems of war and peace.

More perhaps than ever before in history, the intrinsic link between an authentic religious attitude and the great good of peace has become evident to all.

What a tremendous weight for human shoulders to carry! But simultaneously, what a marvelous, exhilarating call to follow.

Although prayer is action, it does not excuse us from working for peace. Here, we are acting as the heralds of the moral awareness of humanity. As such, humanity that wants peace needs peace.

7. There is no peace without a passionate love for peace. There is no peace without a relentless determination to achieve peace.

Peace awaits its prophets. Together, we have filled our eyes with visions of peace: they release energies for a new language of peace, for new gestures of peace. These gestures will shatter the fatal chains of divisions inherited from history or spawned by modern ideologies.

Peace awaits its builders. Let us stretch our hands toward our brothers and sisters to encourage them to build peace upon the four pillars of truth, justice, love, and freedom.

Peace is a workshop open to all and not just to specialists, savants, and strategists. Peace is a universal responsibility: it comes about through a thousand little acts in daily life. By their customary way of living with others, people choose for or against peace. We entrust the cause of peace, especially to the young. May young people help to free history from the wrong paths along which humanity strays.

Peace is in the hands not only of individuals but of nations. The nations have the honor of basing their peacemaking activity upon the conviction of the sacredness of human dignity and the recognition of the unquestionable equality of people with one another. We earnestly invite the leaders of the nations and international organizations to be untiring in bringing in dialogue structures wherever peace is threatened or already compromised. We support their often exhausting efforts to maintain or restore peaœ. We renew our encouragement to the United Nations Organization that it may respond fully to the breadth and height of its universal mission of peace.

8. In answer to my appeal from Lyons in France, on the day we Catholics celebrate as the feast of Saint Francis, we hope that arms have fallen silent and that attacks have ceased. This would be the first significant result of the spiritual efficacy of prayer. This appeal has been shared by many hearts and lips everywhere in the world, especially where people suffer from war and its consequences. It is vital to choose peace and the means to obtain it. Peace, so frail in health, demands constant and intensive care. Along this path, we shall advance with sure and redoubled steps, for there is no doubt that people have and never had so many means for building true peace as today. Humanity has entered an era of increased solidarity and hunger for social justice. This is our chance. It is also our task, which prayer helps us to face.

9. We must continue to do what we have done today at Assisi, praying and witnessing our commitment to peace daily. What we have done today is vital for the world. If the world continues, and men and women are to survive in it, the world cannot do without prayer.

This is the permanent lesson of Assisi: it is the lesson of Saint Francis, who embodied an attractive ideal for us; it is the lesson of Saint Clare, his first follower. It is an ideal composed of meekness, humility, a deep sense of God, and a commitment to serve all. Saint Francis was a man of peace.

We recall that he abandoned the military career he had followed in his youth and discovered the value of poverty, the value of a simple and austere life, in imitation of Jesus Christ whom he intended to serve. Saint Clare was the woman, par excellence, of prayer. Her union with God in prayer sustained Francis and his followers, as it sustains us today. Francis and Clare are examples of peace: with God, oneself, and all men and women. May this holy man and woman inspire all people today to have the same strength of character and love of God and neighbor to continue on the path we must walk together.

10. Moved by the example of Saint Francis and Saint Clare, true disciples of Christ, and newly convinced by the experience of this day we have lived through together, we commit ourselves to re-examine our consciences, to hear its voice more faithfully, to purify our spirits from prejudice, anger, hostility, jealousy, and envy. We will seek to be peacemakers in thought and deed, with mind and heart fixed on the unity of the human family. And we call on all our brothers and sisters who hear us to do the same.

We do this with a sense of our human limitations and with an awareness of the fact that by ourselves alone, we will fail. We, therefore, reaffirm and acknowledge that our future life and peace depend always on God's gift to us.

In that spirit, we invite the world's leaders to know that we humbly implore God for peace. But we also ask them to recognize their responsibilities and recommit themselves to the task of peace, to put into action the strategies of peace with courage and vision.

11. Let me now turn to each of you, representatives of Christian Churches, Ecclesial Communities, and World Religions, who have come to Assisi for this day of prayer, fasting, and pilgrimage.

I thank you again for having accepted my invitation to come here for this act of witness before the world.

I also extend my thanks to all those who have made possible our presence here, particularly our brothers and sisters in Assisi.

And above all, I thank God, the God and Father of Jesus Christ, for this day of grace for the world, each of you, and myself. I do this in the words attributed to Saint Francis:

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. / O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

PASTORAL VISIT TO PERUGIA AND ASSISI

ADDRESS OF JOHN PAUL II
TO THE REPRESENTATIVES OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCHES
AND ECCLESIAL COMMUNITIES AND OF THE WORLD RELIGIONS

Basilica of Saint Francis
27 October 1986