Pope John Paul has
continued to call for all people to pray for peace. On the occasion of the "World Day
for Peace" on January 1st, he wrote:
Peace: the Work of Justice and Love
Recent events move me to return to a theme which often stirs in the
depths of my heart when I remember the events of history which have marked my life,
especially my youth.
The enormous suffering of peoples and individuals even among my own
friends and acquaintances caused by Nazi and communist totalitarianism has never been far
from my thoughts and prayers. I have often paused to reflect on the persistent question:
How do we restore the moral and social order subjected to such horrific violence? My
reasoned conviction, confirmed in turn by biblical revelation, is that the shattered order
cannot be fully restored except by a response that combines justice with forgiveness. The
pillars of true peace are justice and that form of love which is forgiveness.
But in the present circumstances, how can we speak of justice and
forgiveness as the source and condition of peace? We can and we must, no matter how
difficult this may be, a difficulty which often comes from thinking that justice and
forgiveness are irreconcilable. But forgiveness is the opposite of resentment and revenge,
not of justice. In fact true peace is "the work of justice" (Is. 32:17). As the
Second Vatican Council put it, peace is "the fruit of that right ordering of things
with which the divine founder has invested human society and which must be actualized by
man thirsting for an ever more perfect reign of justice". For more than 1,500 years
the Catholic Church has repeated the teaching of St. Augustine of Hippo on this point. He
reminds us that the peace which can and must be built in this world is the peace of right
order—the tranquility of order.
True peace therefore is the fruit of justice, that moral virtue and
legal guarantee which ensures full respect for rights and responsibilities, and the just
distribution of benefits and burdens. But because human justice is always fragile and
imperfect, subject as it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it
must include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness which heals and rebuilds
troubled human relations from their foundations. This is true in circumstances great and
small, at the personal level or on a wider, even international scale. Forgiveness is in no
way opposed to justice, as if to forgive meant to overlook the need to right the wrong
done. It is rather the fullness of justice, leading to that tranquility of order which is
much more than a fragile and temporary cessation of hostilities, involving as it does the
deepest healing of the wounds which fester in human hearts. Justice and forgiveness are
both essential to such healing.
It is these two dimensions of peace that I wish to explore in this
message. The World Day of Peace this year offers all humanity, and particularly the
leaders of nations, the opportunity to reflect upon the demands of justice and the call to
forgiveness in the face of the grave problems which continue to afflict the world, not the
least of which is the new level of violence introduced by organized terrorism. (to be
continued.)
