Since 1968, every January 1 has been celebrated as the World Day of Peace. Pope Benedict XVI has released his message for January 1, 2008, titled “The Human Family, A Community of Peace.”
The human family the Pope refers to encompasses both the small “natural” family in a home and the larger community of people in our society.
How a family deals with peace and violence, he notes, what it tolerates or rejects, will shape how individuals act in the larger society. “The family is the first and indispensable teacher of peace. . . The family is the foundation of society…because it enables its members in decisive ways to experience peace.”
So what happens if people do not first experience peace at home? One can pick up the daily newspaper in any large city and be confronted with acts of violence committed by individuals. Have these individuals ever experienced peace in their homes? If not, what responsibility do we have as a society?
Pope Benedict emphasizes that we must support and nurture individual families. But we must also work towards peace at a larger level. As citizens of the human race, we must work for peace at all levels, even if our small, individual efforts seem to be a mere drop in the bucket.
As we look forward to starting a new year, think of small acts that you can do that will bring a little more peace into the world, whether in your own family, amidst your friends, or in the larger community. Maybe if enough of us did this as one of our New Year’s resolutions, then our world could have a little more peace in 2008.
For books on peace from a Catholic perspective, click here.
Posted by APWeb 
