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World Day of Peace

This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on January 1, 2004

THIS SUNDAY THE CHURCH celebrates three events; the season of Christmas, Mary the Mother of God and the World Day of Peace.
There are four dimensions to Christmas.

1. God so loved the world that he did not send a committee. God revealed his presence in the form of an infant. In the child Jesus we rejoice in the dignity and sacredness of the human person.
2. Jesus came among us not as a solitary individual. In the Feast of the Holy Family we see him as a member of an intimate household with Mary and Joseph. We experience the love of God this season as we renew the intimate bonds of affection that unite our families.
3. The progressive manifestation of Jesus to shepherd and king to Jew and Gentile offers the hope of a larger family of faith. Church is renewed by Christmas liturgy.
4. Christ came to offer us the promise of peace on earth.

Pope John Paul asks us to focus on this latter dimension through his proclamation of January 1 as World Day of Peace. We diminish the meaning of Christ's Coming when we limit his presence to the interior life of the person or the family. He came to offer public reconciliation. He wants to fulfill the promise: "the lion will lie down with the ox."

Over the past 25 years a series of Papal Messages have offered us building blocks for the establishment of peace.. Development is the new name for peace. If we want a more permanent peace we must work for an economy that offers benefits to all. An option for the poor is an essential ingredient for justice. If you want peace , work for justice.

Dialogue is the alternative to violence. As our Pope declared in the Assisi Decalogue in the Millennial year,: "We commit ourselves to fostering the culture of dialogue. So that there will be an increase of understanding and mutual trust between individuals and among peoples, for these are the premise of authentic peace."

In today's message the Pope emphasizes the role of law, especially international law.

He believes this emphasis is important today to counter the temptation "to appeal to the law of force rather than the force of law." He encourages the strengthening of the United Nations as a base for a new international order. He repeats his words to the U N, "The United Nations needs to rise more and more above the cold status of an administrative institution and to become a moral center where all the nations of the world feel at home and develop a shared awareness of being, as it were, a family of nations". The fight against terrorism cannot cause us to abandon hope and cannot be limited only to "Repressive and punitive operations". He advises, "International law must insure that the law of the more powerful does not prevail. Its essential purpose is to replace the material force of arms with the moral force of law, providing appropriate sanctions for transgressors and adequate reparation for victims."

These reflections need not be dismissed as wishful thinking.

Their relevance came home to me last week. A young woman was assisting with the parish pantry. I asked her , "Where do your family come from?". She answered, "Cambodia". I commented, "A distressful country! Do your parents live there?" "No", she replied, "I am an orphan. They were killed by the Khmer Rouge." Just this week I read that 1.7 million Cambodians were eliminated in a three year period in the late 1970's. Only this week has it been announced that one of the surviving representatives of the government that perpetrated this genocide will be brought before the UN Criminal court, if the UN can find the funding! Can there be peace without justice?

Yet while the Church cries out against violence and war, we need to do so these days with a new humility. We are aware that abuse and violence have been done to children within the church and at the hands of some clergy. The promotion of the Charter to protect children in our dioceses is essential if the church is to stand as a credible sign against violence. and recover an authentic voice.

Within our own parish let us work to promote the conditions of peace. We come from all the four continents. We boast a substantial Latin American community. As we work together, let us never think about one another as "Them and us". While the world fights over difference, let us acknowledge , tolerate and respect differences. For the new year, I hope that the new community center that we will open will not be a thing of stones and timber and glass. Let is provide a space where we can all come together to know and celebrate the variety of God's gifts we are given to share.

We will then be a messenger of peace, and even more, a sign and instrument of peace.

  or  2004 Homilies