«The world is not saved by sharpening swords, judging, oppressing, or eliminating brothers, but rather striving tirelessly to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome all, without calculations and without fear.”
It is the first day of the civil year and the Church celebrates, eight days after Christmas, the solemnity of Mary Most Holy Mother of God and the 59th World Peace Day desired on this day by Saint Paul VI.
Pope Leo celebrates the solemn mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and invites the faithful to read the time that is opening as a gift of freedom, reconciliation and hope. In the homily, the Pontiff started from the blessing of the book of Numbers (“May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face to you and grant you peace”) to remember that authentic peace always arises from a gaze of free and disarmed love.
A moment of the celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica
(HANDLE)
A liberated people, a peace born from freedom
That blessing, Pope Leo explained, was addressed to a people who had known slavery and liberation: “The people of Israel (…) were a people of the freed, of men and women reborn after a long slavery thanks to the intervention of God and the generous response of his servant Moses”.
A people who had had to give up false securities to welcome a new future: «In the desert many of the past certainties had been lost, but in exchange there was freedom», a freedom that translated «into an open road towards the future».
In this sense, the Pope observed, biblical peace does not coincide with the absence of problems or with a stability built on oppression, but with a reconciled life, open to tomorrow. It is a message that resonates with particular force on the World Day of Peace, while the world is marked by conflicts, violence and new forms of slavery.
Every day as the beginning of a new life
Hence the update for the present time: «At the beginning of the new year the Liturgy reminds us that every day can be, for each of us, the beginning of a new life, thanks to the generous love of God, his mercy and the response of our freedom». The new year, he added, must be experienced as “an open path, to be discovered, in which to venture, by grace, free and bearers of freedom, forgiven and dispensers of forgiveness”.
Mary, Mother of the Prince of Peace
At the center of the celebration, the mystery of Mary’s Divine Maternity, intimately linked to the theme of peace. With her “yes”, Pope Leo recalled, Mary “contributed to giving the Source of all mercy and benevolence a human face: the face of Jesus”. It is through this face that the Father’s love reaches humanity and transforms it, making possible a peace that is born from encounter and not from imposition.
A “disarmed and disarming” God
Recalling Saint Augustine, the Pontiff underlined the radical gratuitousness of God’s love: in Mary “the creator of man became man”, choosing the path of humility to “free us even if we were unworthy”.
It is here that one of the strongest passages of the homily emerges, also at the center of the Message for the World Day of Peace: God presents himself to humanity “”disarmed and disarming”, naked, defenseless like a newborn baby in the cradle”.
A choice that profoundly questions history and human relations and that indicates the way to peace: «The world is not saved by sharpening swords, judging, oppressing, or eliminating brothers, but rather by tirelessly striving to understand, forgive, liberate and welcome everyone, without calculation and without fear.”
Mary, school of peace and trust
Mary is the first witness to this style of God. «She too lowered every defense, renouncing expectations, claims and guarantees, as mothers know how to do», consecrating her life to her Son to give him back to the world.
In divine motherhood, Pope Leo explained, they meet «two immense “disarmed” realities: that of God who renounces every privilege of his divinity (…) and that of the person who confidently fully embraces his will».
The nativity scene, icon of Christian peace
In the wake of this contemplation, the Pope recalled the words of Saint John Paul II on the nativity scene, pronounced precisely on the occasion of a World Day of Peace: «The disarming tenderness of the Child, the surprising poverty in which He finds himself, the humble simplicity of Mary and Joseph» are capable of transforming lives and making believers «messengers of salvation».
Start again like the shepherds
Finally, at the beginning of the year and «close to the conclusion of the Jubilee of Hope», Pope Leo invited us to return spiritually to the Bethlehem cave, indicating the nativity scene as the most eloquent sign of Christian peace: «Let us approach the Nativity scene, in faith, as the place of “disarmed and disarming” peace par excellence», and then set out again, like the shepherds, «glorifying and praising God» and bringing the blessing received into the world, even in contexts marked by conflict and division.
On Wednesday evening, at the end of the end-of-year Te Deum, the Pope went to the Nativity scene set up in St. Peter’s Square to pray and greet the faithful who were waiting for him.
