There are probably many things for which we can give thanks. There may also be things which have disturbed us or made us sad, and things for which we need to ask forgiveness.
Possibly the most important question for all of us as, we look back, is: “where was God to be found in all of this”?
The Gospel for this Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, tells us that after the birth of Jesus, and the visit of the Shepherds, Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart”.
It had been a very unusual year for her. She had been visited by an angel, had conceived unexpectedly and then faced the possibility of religious and cultural isolation because of her pregnancy. Now, with Joseph her husband, she had travelled over one hundred kilometres on a donkey in the final stages of pregnancy, only to give birth to her child in a stable.
But, as she pondered on the year that had passed, she knew “where God was to be found in all of that”. The angel had told her, when he said: “hail full of grace, the Lord is with you”.
The presence of God is the source of our peace, even when life is difficult and when the mission entrusted to us seems to be more than we can humanly manage. He is with us, even and especially in times of sickness and bereavement, in times of broken relationships, and when - like Jesu - we are homeless or forced to take refuge in a foreign land.
The Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, is celebrated as the World Peace Day. I think that is because Mary herself knew the peace that comes from intimacy with God, and she brought that peace into the world when she gave birth to Jesus, who is sometimes called Emmanuel, which means God-with-us.
Pope Paul VI established the World Peace Day in 1967. Some months before that he had published an encyclical letter called Populorum Progressio (or, in English, "On the Development of Peoples"). In that letter, the Pope pointed out that peace depends justice, on the equitable sharing of the resources of the earth, and on the implementation of human rights. Each year since then, for the past fifty-eight years, all of the Popes have used the World Peace Day to remind us that, arising out of the Birth of Jesus who is God-with-us, we, like Mary, have a mission to bring his Peace into the World through our own attitudes, words and actions. It begins by making a space for Jesus in our hearts and in our lives, as Mary did.
In his message this year, Pope Francis draws on the theme of the Jubilee. Every Jubilee is a Year of Grace during which the focus is placed on reconciliation and liberation and the forgiveness of debt.
When we pray the Our Father, as Jesus taught us, we say: “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us”. As we stand at the threshold of this year, we have nothing that does not ultimately come from God. Surely his goodness to us is the source of the Hope that we celebrate in this Year of Grace. All he asks of us is that we give freely of what we have received, and that we forgive as we have been forgiven. This attitude of “letting go” is the beginning of peace.
But Pope Francis suggests that: “Once we lose sight of our relationship to the Father, we begin to cherish the illusion that our relationships with others can be governed by a logic of exploitation and oppression, where might makes right”.
Reflecting on the particular circumstances of the world just at the moment Pope Francis presents us with three challenges which can contribute to world peace.
These are:
• The cancellation of international debt (because we in the developed nations actually consume far more than our fair share of the worlds resources).
• A firm commitment to respect for human life from conception to natural death, including the abolition of the death sentence, which he describes as “a concrete gesture that can help foster the culture of life”.
• That we use at least a fixed percentage of the money earmarked for armaments to establish a global Fund to eradicate hunger and facilitate in the educational activities of the poorer countries, aimed at promoting sustainable development and combating climate change.
Each of these three things in its own way would make an enormous contribution to peace. Let us not be under any illusion; these are huge challenges, which none of us can achieve on your own.
They require concerted political action, but that begins with us. Even global attitudes can change if there is enough support and leadership by example. The sinful attitudes that abuse power and seek excessive profit, are the very same in our own local communities as they are on a global scale. They can be replaced by authentic solidarity, if we can only begin to see others, like ourselves, as the daughters and sons of God, and if we act accordingly.
As Pope Francis says in the letter with which he launched this Jubilee Year of Hope: “Disarming hearts is a job for everyone, great and small, rich and poor alike. At times, something quite simple will do, such as a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed”. “With such gestures”, he says, “we progress towards the goal of peace”.