World Day of Peace

I've just finished reading the Holy Father's Message for the World Day of Peace to be observed January 1st. I wish I had read it before the weekend Masses, though I doubt my mind was in any state to digest it. Be sure to read it. It is a brilliant reflection on both the family and on peace.

In this message, His Holiness offers a few very observant points about families being "the first and indispensable teacher of peace" (3) and moves from them to reflect upon peace within the entire human family, showing how families can teach all peoples the ways of peace, which leads to this excellent point:

Consequently, whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace. This point merits special reflection: everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman, everything that directly or indirectly stands in the way of its openness to the responsible acceptance of a new life, everything that obstructs its right to be primarily responsible for the education of its children, constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace (5).

Pope Benedict XVI also spends a bit of time talking about the environment, cautioning that "respecting the environment does not mean considering material or animal nature more important than man" (7). The teacher within him then clarifies what respecting the environment means:

Rather, it means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests, for future generations also have the right to reap its benefits and to exhibit towards nature the same responsible freedom that we claim for ourselves (7).

He even manages to talk a bit about the natural law "which must be the rule for decisions of conscience and the guide for all human behavior" (12). He reminds us, too, that "knowledge of the natural moral norm is not inaccessible to those who, in reflecting on themselves and their destiny, strive to understand the inner logic of the deepest inclinations present in their being" (13).

The Holy Father has outdone himself with this Message. It is one that takes several reads to digest, but is well worth the effort.