At 6:00pm this evening (12:00pm EDT), inside Saint Peter's Basilica, the Cardinal Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin presided at the celebration of a Mass for Peace on the Korean Peninsula, which included the presence of the President of the Republic of Korea, His Excellency, Jae-in Moon.
Mister President,
Dear confreres in the Episcopate and in the Presbyterate,
Distinguished Authorities and Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The Evangelist John tells us that the Lord Jesus, appearing to the disciples for the first time after the Resurrection, addressed them with the greeting: Peace be with you! (Jn 20, 19). The disciples had already heard similar words resound on the evening of the last supper, before the Lord delivered himself into the hands of his persecutors, accepting to the end the sacrifice of the Cross for the salvation of the world. In fact, at the moment when he was taking his leave of them, Jesus said: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives, I give you peace. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The peace that the Lord offers to the human heart in search of true life and full joy is that spiritual mystery that unites the sacrifice of the Cross to the renewing power of the Resurrection: I leave you peace, I give you my peace!
Tonight, we humbly wish to raise our gaze to God, to the One who holds the history and the destiny of humanity in his hands, and we want to implore once again the gift of peace for the whole world. We do this by praying in particular so that even on the Korean Peninsula, the word peace might finally resound fully after so many years of tensions and division.
In the first reading for this celebration we heard the author of the Book of Deuteronomy recall the dual experience of the people of Israel, that of blessing and that of curse: When all these things that I have set before you, the blessing and the curse, they will be realized on you and you will call them to your mind in the midst of all the nations, where the Lord your God will have lost you ... then the Lord your God will change your fate, will have mercy on you and he will gather you again from all peoples ...
The wisdom of Scripture makes us understand that only those who have experienced the inscrutable mystery of the apparent absence of God in the face of suffering, oppression and hatred can fully understand what it means to hear the word peace resound again.
Of course, as people of good will, we all know that peace is built by means of the choices we make every day, through serious commitment to the service of justice and solidarity, by means of the promotion of the rights and dignity of the human person, and especially through caring for the weak. But, for those who believe, peace is first of all a gift that comes from above, from God himself. On the contrary, it is the full manifestation of the presence of God, of the One whom the Prophets announced as the Prince of Peace.
We are also well aware that the peace that comes from God is not an abstract and distant idea, but an experience lived concretely in the daily journey of life. It is, as Pope Francis has repeatedly pointed out, a peace in the midst of tribulations. Therefore, when Jesus promises peace to the disciples, he adds: Not as the world gives it, I give it to you.
In fact, as the Pope still emphasizes, the world often anesthetizes us so as not to let us see another reality of life: the cross. This is why the peace that God offers us goes beyond mere earthly expectations, it is not the result of a simple compromise, but a new reality, which involves all dimensions of life, even the mysterious dimensions of the cross and the inevitable sufferings of our earthly pilgrimage. For this reason, the Christian faith teaches us that peace without the cross is not the peace of Jesus.
Pope Paul VI, who we had the joy of seeing canonized last Sunday, on a radiant day of celebration, celebrating for the first time the World Day of Peace on January 1, 1968, and recalling some expressions which had been dear to Saint John XXIII, addressed the faithful Catholics and all men of good will with the words: We must always talk about peace! We need to teach the world to love peace, to build it, to defend it; and against the resurfacing premisses of war ... it is necessary to arouse in the men of our time and of future generations, the sense and the love of peace based on truth, justice, freedom, love (Saint Paul VI, Message for the first World Day of Peace, 8 December 1967).
Dear brothers and sisters,
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to make peace an authentic mission in today's world, trusting in the mysterious power of the cross of Christ and his resurrection. With the grace of God, the path of forgiveness becomes possible, the choice of fraternity among peoples is a concrete fact and peace is a shared horizon also in the diversity of the subjects that give life to the international community.
Thus, our prayer for peace and for reconciliation will rise to God from purer hearts and, through his gift of grace, will obtain the precious good to which we all aspire (Francis, Homily in the Cathedral of Myeong-dong (Seoul), 18 August 2014).
Amen.
(Original text in Italian)
Homily of His Eminence, Pietro Parolin
Secretary of State of His Holiness
Mister President,
Dear confreres in the Episcopate and in the Presbyterate,
Distinguished Authorities and Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
The Evangelist John tells us that the Lord Jesus, appearing to the disciples for the first time after the Resurrection, addressed them with the greeting: Peace be with you! (Jn 20, 19). The disciples had already heard similar words resound on the evening of the last supper, before the Lord delivered himself into the hands of his persecutors, accepting to the end the sacrifice of the Cross for the salvation of the world. In fact, at the moment when he was taking his leave of them, Jesus said: Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives, I give you peace. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
The peace that the Lord offers to the human heart in search of true life and full joy is that spiritual mystery that unites the sacrifice of the Cross to the renewing power of the Resurrection: I leave you peace, I give you my peace!
Tonight, we humbly wish to raise our gaze to God, to the One who holds the history and the destiny of humanity in his hands, and we want to implore once again the gift of peace for the whole world. We do this by praying in particular so that even on the Korean Peninsula, the word peace might finally resound fully after so many years of tensions and division.
In the first reading for this celebration we heard the author of the Book of Deuteronomy recall the dual experience of the people of Israel, that of blessing and that of curse: When all these things that I have set before you, the blessing and the curse, they will be realized on you and you will call them to your mind in the midst of all the nations, where the Lord your God will have lost you ... then the Lord your God will change your fate, will have mercy on you and he will gather you again from all peoples ...
The wisdom of Scripture makes us understand that only those who have experienced the inscrutable mystery of the apparent absence of God in the face of suffering, oppression and hatred can fully understand what it means to hear the word peace resound again.
Of course, as people of good will, we all know that peace is built by means of the choices we make every day, through serious commitment to the service of justice and solidarity, by means of the promotion of the rights and dignity of the human person, and especially through caring for the weak. But, for those who believe, peace is first of all a gift that comes from above, from God himself. On the contrary, it is the full manifestation of the presence of God, of the One whom the Prophets announced as the Prince of Peace.
We are also well aware that the peace that comes from God is not an abstract and distant idea, but an experience lived concretely in the daily journey of life. It is, as Pope Francis has repeatedly pointed out, a peace in the midst of tribulations. Therefore, when Jesus promises peace to the disciples, he adds: Not as the world gives it, I give it to you.
In fact, as the Pope still emphasizes, the world often anesthetizes us so as not to let us see another reality of life: the cross. This is why the peace that God offers us goes beyond mere earthly expectations, it is not the result of a simple compromise, but a new reality, which involves all dimensions of life, even the mysterious dimensions of the cross and the inevitable sufferings of our earthly pilgrimage. For this reason, the Christian faith teaches us that peace without the cross is not the peace of Jesus.
Pope Paul VI, who we had the joy of seeing canonized last Sunday, on a radiant day of celebration, celebrating for the first time the World Day of Peace on January 1, 1968, and recalling some expressions which had been dear to Saint John XXIII, addressed the faithful Catholics and all men of good will with the words: We must always talk about peace! We need to teach the world to love peace, to build it, to defend it; and against the resurfacing premisses of war ... it is necessary to arouse in the men of our time and of future generations, the sense and the love of peace based on truth, justice, freedom, love (Saint Paul VI, Message for the first World Day of Peace, 8 December 1967).
Dear brothers and sisters,
Let us ask the Lord for the grace to make peace an authentic mission in today's world, trusting in the mysterious power of the cross of Christ and his resurrection. With the grace of God, the path of forgiveness becomes possible, the choice of fraternity among peoples is a concrete fact and peace is a shared horizon also in the diversity of the subjects that give life to the international community.
Thus, our prayer for peace and for reconciliation will rise to God from purer hearts and, through his gift of grace, will obtain the precious good to which we all aspire (Francis, Homily in the Cathedral of Myeong-dong (Seoul), 18 August 2014).
Amen.
(Original text in Italian)
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