Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City has called on
Mexicans to seek out the love and peace of Christ as a response to the
terrible wave of violence that has swept the country.
The cardinal explained during a Jan. 30 homily that “hatred and
violence will always lead us to destruction and to digression. Love and
peace are the way toward true and irreversible change, not only at the
institutional level, but at a personal level and in our consciences.”
“It is unquestionable that the love and peace proclaimed by Christ
have benefited people and humanity much more than the revolts of
zealots, civil wars and class warfare. It is clear that what the Mexican
people today are waiting for are proposals that will bring progress and
not useless confrontations; inclusive and participative projects and
not short-lived prominence; productive programs that create wealth and
not the spreading of bitterness and despair,” Cardinal Rivera said.
“The changes and transformations that Jesus proposes do not come
about through hatred and violence, but rather through love and peace.
The struggles that Christ calls us to are not ‘against’ someone, but
rather ‘for’ the poorest and most excluded of this world,” he continued.
“I know that some people want to turn many of the Christian
condemnations of violence, corruption and deception into unproductive
struggles against those they consider to be their adversaries, instead
of fighting for peace, honor and truth, which can bring progress and
development to Mexico and the continent,” Cardinal Rivera said.
“If the changes that take place in our world are few and slow-paced,
it is because there is little love in our relationships and few builders
of peace,” he said.
“The efforts by some scholars to make Jesus out to be a violent
revolutionary have totally failed as they have no basis,” the cardinal
underscored. “The rejection of violence by Jesus in his attitude and in
his words was absolute.”
“The pacifism of Jesus can never be invoked to defend the trampling
of human dignity or to justify the stifling of progress and the
development of nations.”
“If any word in the gospel is key, it is ‘conversion,’ which is an
invitation to change, transformation, the renewal of persons and of the
community,” the cardinal added.