2025 Jubilee Year of Hope: In last week’s newsletter we looked at paragraph 7 in Pope Francis’ document for the Holy Year and he was speaking of the ‘signs of the times’. He deals with eight signs in this document. The first sign is described in n.8:
“The first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world, which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war. Heedless of the horrors of the past, humanity is confronting yet another ordeal, as many peoples are prey to brutality and violence. What does the future holdfor those peoples, who have already endured so much? Howis it possible that their desperate plea for help is not motivating world leaders to resolve the numerous regional conflicts in view of their possible consequences at the global level? Is it too much to dream that arms can fall silent and cease to rain down destruction and death? May the Jubilee remind us that those who are peacemakers will be called “children of God” (Mt 5:9). The need for peace challenges us all, and demands that concrete steps be taken. May diplomacy be tireless in its commitment to seek, with courage and creativity, every opportunity to undertake negotiations aimed at a lasting peace.”
The desire for peace should be the first sign of hope in our world. As well as the brutality of war, many people are also caught in situations where they are prey to brutality and violence. In the case of war, one of the may horrors attached to modern war is that people can sit in their living room and watch it on television, sometimes leading to a numbing of a sense of pain. When violence breaks out in small towns and cities it can be fighting between two different groups that takes on a nasty streak — the use of knives in scuffles on a weekend night out being one of many ways violence is manifested.
For those in war, what does the future hold for them? if we look at the quiet sudden ending to the troubles in Syria, what happens next? Will does who have suffered so much get a chance to build back their lives in a peaceful or will it end up in more turmoil even though it might be of a different kind? Pope Francis questions why world leaders are not motivated to resolve the regional conflicts ‘in view of their possible consequences at the global level’. He asks: “Is it too much to dream that arms can fall silent and cease to rain down destruction and death?” The arms trade in our world is massive. The trillions spent on weapons and weaponizing armies is incredible. As long as you have power hungry leaders, you will have financially greedy arms dealers. It is a vicious circle and Pope Francis reminds us that the signs of the times remind us ‘that those who are peacemakers will be called “children of God” (Matthew 5:9). He reminds us that the need for peace challenges us all. In one way we could have parts of our life that need to become ‘peaceful’, but on the bigger scale we need to encourage our leaders to operate and negotiate in ways that will bring lasting peace to all levels of society.