FRATERNITY, THE FOUNDATION AND PATHWAY TO PEACE
1. In this, my first Message for the World Day of Peace, I wish to
offer to everyone, individuals and peoples, my best wishes for a life filled
with joy and hope. In the heart of every man and woman is the desire for a full
life, including that irrepressible longing for fraternity which draws us to
fellowship with others and enables us to see them not as enemies or rivals, but
as brothers and sisters to be accepted and embraced.
Fraternity is an essential human quality, for we are relational beings. A
lively awareness of our relatedness helps us to look upon and to treat each
person as a true sister or brother; without fraternity it is impossible to build
a just society and a solid and lasting peace. We should remember that
fraternity is generally first learned in the family, thanks above all to the
responsible and complementary roles of each of its members, particularly the
father and the mother. The family is the wellspring of all fraternity, and as
such it is the foundation and the first pathway to peace, since, by its
vocation, it is meant to spread its love to the world around it.
The ever-increasing number of interconnections and communications in today’s
world makes us powerfully aware of the unity and common destiny of the nations.
In the dynamics of history, and in the diversity of ethnic groups, societies and
cultures, we see the seeds of a vocation to form a community composed of
brothers and sisters who accept and care for one another. But this vocation is
still frequently denied and ignored in a world marked by a “globalization of
indifference” which makes us slowly inured to the suffering of others and closed
in on ourselves.
In many parts of the world, there seems to be no end to grave offences against
fundamental human rights, especially the right to life and the right to
religious freedom. The tragic phenomenon of human trafficking, in which the
unscrupulous prey on the lives and the desperation of others, is but one
unsettling example of this. Alongside overt armed conflicts are the less
visible but no less cruel wars fought in the economic and financial sectors with
means which are equally destructive of lives, families and businesses.
Globalization, as
Benedict XVI pointed out, makes us neighbours, but does not
make us brothers. The many
situations of inequality, poverty and injustice, are signs not only of a
profound lack of fraternity, but also of the absence of a culture of
solidarity. New ideologies, characterized by rampant individualism, egocentrism
and materialistic consumerism, weaken social bonds, fuelling that “throw away”
mentality which leads to contempt for, and the abandonment of, the weakest and
those considered “useless”. In this way human coexistence increasingly tends to
resemble a mere do ut des which is both pragmatic and selfish.
At the same time, it appears clear that contemporary ethical systems remain
incapable of producing authentic bonds of fraternity, since a fraternity devoid
of reference to a common Father as its ultimate foundation is unable to endure.
True brotherhood among people presupposes and demands a transcendent
Fatherhood. Based on the recognition of this fatherhood, human fraternity is
consolidated: each person becomes a “neighbour” who cares for others.
“Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9)
2. To understand more fully this human vocation to fraternity, to recognize
more clearly the obstacles standing in the way of its realization and to
identify ways of overcoming them, it is of primary importance to let oneself be
led by knowledge of God’s plan, which is presented in an eminent way in sacred
Scripture.
According to the biblical account of creation, all people are descended from
common parents, Adam and Eve, the couple created by God in his image and
likeness (cf. Gen 1:26), to whom Cain and Abel were born. In the story
of this first family, we see the origins of society and the evolution of
relations between individuals and peoples.
Abel is a shepherd, Cain is a farmer. Their profound identity and their
vocation is to be brothers, albeit in the diversity of their activity and
culture, their way of relating to God and to creation. Cain’s murder of Abel
bears tragic witness to his radical rejection of their vocation to be brothers.
Their story (cf. Gen 4:1-16) brings out the difficult task to which all
men and women are called, to live as one, each taking care of the other. Cain,
incapable of accepting God’s preference for Abel who had offered him the best of
his flock – “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering; but for Cain and his
offering he had no regard” (Gen 4:4-5) – killed Abel out of jealousy. In
this way, he refused to regard Abel as a brother, to relate to him rightly, to
live in the presence of God by assuming his responsibility to care for and to
protect others. By asking him “Where is your brother?”, God holds Cain
accountable for what he has done. He answers: “I do not know. Am I my brother’s
keeper?” (Gen 4:9). Then, the Book of Genesis tells us, “Cain went away
from the presence of the Lord” (4:16).
We need to ask ourselves what were the real reasons which led Cain to disregard
the bond of fraternity and, at the same time, the bond of reciprocity and
fellowship which joined him to his brother Abel. God himself condemns and
reproves Cain’s collusion with evil: “sin is crouching at your door” (Gen
4:7). But Cain refuses to turn against evil and decides instead to raise his
“hand against his brother Abel” (Gen 4:8), thus scorning God’s plan. In
this way, he thwarts his primordial calling to be a child of God and to live in
fraternity.
The story of Cain and Abel teaches that we have an inherent calling to
fraternity, but also the tragic capacity to betray that calling. This is
witnessed by our daily acts of selfishness, which are at the root of so many
wars and so much injustice: many men and women die at the hands of their
brothers and sisters who are incapable of seeing themselves as such, that is, as
beings made for reciprocity, for communion and self-giving.
“And you will all be brothers” (Mt 23:8)
3. The question naturally arises: Can the men and women of this world ever
fully respond to the longing for fraternity placed within them by God the
Father? Will they ever manage by their power alone to overcome indifference,
egoism and hatred, and to accept the legitimate differences typical of brothers
and sisters?
By paraphrasing his words, we can summarize the answer given by the Lord Jesus:
“For you have only one Father, who is God, and you are all brothers and sisters”
(cf. Mt 23:8-9). The basis of fraternity is found in God’s fatherhood.
We are not speaking of a generic fatherhood, indistinct and historically
ineffectual, but rather of the specific and extraordinarily concrete personal
love of God for each man and woman (cf. Mt 6:25-30). It is a fatherhood,
then, which effectively generates fraternity, because the love of God, once
welcomed, becomes the most formidable means of transforming our lives and
relationships with others, opening us to solidarity and to genuine sharing.
In a particular way, human fraternity is regenerated in and by
Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection. The Cross is the definitive
foundational locus of that fraternity which human beings are not capable of
generating themselves. Jesus Christ, who assumed human nature in order to
redeem it, loving the Father unto death on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:8), has
through his resurrection made of us a new humanity, in full communion
with the will of God, with his plan, which includes the full realization of our
vocation to fraternity.
From the beginning, Jesus takes up the plan of the Father, acknowledging its
primacy over all else. But Christ, with his abandonment to death for love of
the Father, becomes the definitive and new principle of us all; we are
called to regard ourselves in him as brothers and sisters, inasmuch as we are
children of the same Father. He himself is the Covenant; in his person we
are reconciled with God and with one another as brothers and sisters. Jesus’
death on the Cross also brings an end to the separation between peoples,
between the people of the Covenant and the people of the Gentiles, who were
bereft of hope until that moment, since they were not party to the pacts of the
Promise. As we read in the Letter to the Ephesians, Jesus Christ is the one who
reconciles all people in himself. He is peace, for he made one people
out of the two, breaking down the wall of separation which divided them, that
is, the hostility between them. He created in himself one people, one new man,
one new humanity (cf. 2:14-16).
All who accept the life of Christ and live in him acknowledge God as Father and
give themselves completely to him, loving him above all things. The reconciled
person sees in God the Father of all, and, as a consequence, is spurred on to
live a life of fraternity open to all. In Christ, the other is welcomed and
loved as a son or daughter of God, as a brother or sister, not as a stranger,
much less as a rival or even an enemy. In God’s family, where all are sons and
daughters of the same Father, and, because they are grafted to Christ, sons
and daughters in the Son, there are no “disposable lives”. All men and
women enjoy an equal and inviolable dignity. All are loved by God. All have
been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who died on the Cross and rose for all.
This is the reason why no one can remain indifferent before the lot of our
brothers and sisters.
Fraternity, the foundation and pathway to peace
4. This being said, it is easy to realize that fraternity is the foundation
and pathway of peace. The social encyclicals written by my predecessors
can be very helpful in this regard. It would be sufficient to draw on the
definitions of peace found in the encyclicals Populorum Progressio by
Pope
Paul VI and
Sollicitudo Rei Socialis by
John Paul II. From the
first we learn that the integral development of peoples is the new name of
peace. From the second, we conclude that peace is an opus solidaritatis.
Paul VI stated that not only individuals but nations
too must
encounter one another in a spirit of fraternity. As he says: “In this
mutual understanding and friendship, in this sacred communion, we must
also… work together to build the common future of the human race”. In the first place, this duty falls to those who are most privileged. Their
obligations are rooted in human and supernatural fraternity and are manifested
in three ways: the duty of solidarity, which requires the richer nations
to assist the less developed; the duty of social justice, which requires
the realignment of relationships between stronger and weaker peoples in terms of
greater fairness; and the duty of universal charity, which entails the
promotion of a more humane world for all, a world in which each has something to
give and to receive, without the progress of the one constituting an obstacle to
the development of the other.
If, then, we consider peace as opus solidaritatis, we cannot
fail to acknowledge that fraternity is its principal foundation. Peace,
John Paul II affirmed, is an indivisible good. Either it is the good of all or it is
the good of none. It can be truly attained and enjoyed, as the highest quality
of life and a more human and sustainable development, only if all are guided by
solidarity as “a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the
common good”. This means not being guided by a “desire for profit” or a “thirst for power”.
What is needed is the willingness to “lose ourselves” for the sake of others
rather than exploiting them, and to “serve them” instead of oppressing them for
our own advantage. “The ‘other’ – whether a person, people or nation – [is to
be seen] not just as some kind of instrument, with a work capacity and physical
strength to be exploited at low cost and then discarded when no longer useful,
but as our ‘neighbour’, a ‘helper’”.
Christian solidarity presumes that our neighbour is loved not only
as “a human being with his or her own rights and a fundamental equality with
everyone else, but as the living image of God the Father, redeemed by the blood
of Jesus Christ and placed under the permanent action of the Holy Spirit”,
as another brother or sister. As John Paul II noted: “At that point, awareness of the common fatherhood of God, of the brotherhood of
all in Christ – ‘children in the Son’ – and of the presence and life-giving
action of the Holy Spirit, will bring to our vision of the world a new
criterion for interpreting it”,
for changing it.
Fraternity, a prerequisite for fighting poverty
5. In his encyclical
Caritas in Veritate, my predecessor
reminded the world how the lack of fraternity between peoples and men and
women is a significant cause of poverty. In many societies, we are experiencing a profound poverty of relationships
as a result of the lack of solid family and community relationships. We are
concerned by the various types of hardship, marginalization, isolation and
various forms of pathological dependencies which we see increasing. This kind
of poverty can be overcome only through the rediscovery and valuing of
fraternal relationships in the heart of families and communities, through
the sharing of joys and sorrows, of the hardships and triumphs that are a part
of human life.
Moreover, if on the one hand we are seeing a reduction in
absolute poverty, on the other hand we cannot fail to recognize that there
is a serious rise in relative poverty, that is, instances of inequality
between people and groups who live together in particular regions or in a
determined historical-cultural context. In this sense, effective policies are
needed to promote the principle of fraternity, securing for people – who
are equal in dignity and in fundamental rights – access to capital, services,
educational resources, healthcare and technology so that every person has the
opportunity to express and realize his or her life project and can develop fully
as a person.
One also sees the need for policies which can lighten an excessive
imbalance between incomes. We must not forget the Church’s teaching on the
so-called social mortgage, which holds that although it is lawful, as
Saint Thomas Aquinas says, and indeed necessary “that people have ownership of
goods”, insofar as their use is
concerned, “they possess them as not just their own, but common to others as
well, in the sense that they can benefit others as well as themselves”.
Finally, there is yet another form of promoting fraternity – and
thus defeating poverty – which must be at the basis of all the others. It is
the detachment of those who choose to live a sober and essential lifestyle, of
those who, by sharing their own wealth, thus manage to experience fraternal
communion with others. This is fundamental for following Jesus Christ and being
truly Christian. It is not only the case of consecrated persons who profess the
vow of poverty, but also of the many families and responsible citizens who
firmly believe that it is their fraternal relationship with their neighbours
which constitutes their most precious good.
The rediscovery of fraternity in the economy
6. The grave financial and economic crises of the present time – which find
their origin in the progressive distancing of man from God and from his
neighbour, in the greedy pursuit of material goods on the one hand, and in the
impoverishment of interpersonal and community relations on the other – have
pushed man to seek satisfaction, happiness and security in consumption and
earnings out of all proportion to the principles of a sound economy. In 1979
John Paul II had called attention to “a real perceptible danger that, while
man’s dominion over the world of things is making enormous advances, he should
lose the essential threads of his dominion and in various ways let his humanity
be subjected to the world and become himself something subject to manipulation
in many ways – even if the manipulation is often not perceptible directly –
through the whole of the organization of community life, through the production
system and through pressure from the means of social communication.”
The succession of economic crises should lead to a timely rethinking of our
models of economic development and to a change in lifestyles. Today’s crisis,
even with its serious implications for people’s lives, can also provide us with
a fruitful opportunity to rediscover the virtues of prudence, temperance,
justice and strength. These virtues can help us to overcome difficult moments
and to recover the fraternal bonds which join us one to another, with deep
confidence that human beings need and are capable of something greater than
maximizing their individual interest. Above all, these virtues are necessary for
building and preserving a society in accord with human dignity.
Fraternity extinguishes war
7. In the past year, many of our brothers and sisters have continued to endure
the destructive experience of war, which constitutes a grave and deep wound
inflicted on fraternity.
Many conflicts are taking place amid general indifference. To all those who
live in lands where weapons impose terror and destruction, I assure you of my
personal closeness and that of the whole Church, whose mission is to bring
Christ’s love to the defenceless victims of forgotten wars through her prayers
for peace, her service to the wounded, the starving, refugees, the displaced and
all those who live in fear. The Church also speaks out in order to make leaders
hear the cry of pain of the suffering and to put an end to every form of
hostility, abuse and the violation of fundamental human rights.
For this reason, I appeal forcefully to all those who sow violence and death by
force of arms: in the person you today see simply as an enemy to be beaten,
discover rather your brother or sister, and hold back your hand! Give up the
way of arms and go out to meet the other in dialogue, pardon and reconciliation,
in order to rebuild justice, trust, and hope around you! “From this standpoint,
it is clear that, for the world’s peoples, armed conflicts are always a
deliberate negation of international harmony, and create profound divisions and
deep wounds which require many years to heal. Wars are a concrete refusal to
pursue the great economic and social goals that the international community has
set itself”.
Nevertheless, as long as so great a quantity of arms are in circulation as at
present, new pretexts can always be found for initiating hostilities. For this
reason, I make my own the appeal of my predecessors for the non-proliferation of
arms and for disarmament of all parties, beginning with nuclear and chemical
weapons disarmament.
We cannot however fail to observe that international agreements and national
laws – while necessary and greatly to be desired – are not of themselves
sufficient to protect humanity from the risk of armed conflict. A conversion of
hearts is needed which would permit everyone to recognize in the other a brother
or sister to care for, and to work together with, in building a fulfilling life
for all. This is the spirit which inspires many initiatives of civil society,
including religious organizations, to promote peace. I express my hope that the
daily commitment of all will continue to bear fruit and that there will be an
effective application in international law of the right to peace, as a
fundamental human right and a necessary prerequisite for every other right.
Corruption and organized crime threaten fraternity
8. The horizon of fraternity also has to do with the need for fulfilment of
every man and woman. People’s legitimate ambitions, especially in the case of
the young, should not be thwarted or offended, nor should people be robbed of
their hope of realizing them. Nevertheless, ambition must not be confused with
the abuse of power. On the contrary, people should compete with one another in
mutual esteem (cf. Rm 12:10). In disagreements, which are also an
unavoidable part of life, we should always remember that we are brothers and
sisters, and therefore teach others and teach ourselves not to consider our
neighbour as an enemy or as an adversary to be eliminated.
Fraternity generates social peace because it creates a balance between freedom
and justice, between personal responsibility and solidarity, between the good of
individuals and the common good. And so a political community must act in a
transparent and responsible way to favour all this. Citizens must feel
themselves represented by the public authorities in respect for their freedom.
Yet frequently a wedge is driven between citizens and institutions by partisan
interests which disfigure that relationship, fostering the creation of an
enduring climate of conflict.
An authentic spirit of fraternity overcomes the individual selfishness which
conflicts with people’s ability to live in freedom and in harmony among
themselves. Such selfishness develops socially – whether it is in the many
forms of corruption, so widespread today, or in the formation of criminal
organizations, from small groups to those organized on a global scale. These
groups tear down legality and justice, striking at the very heart of the dignity
of the person. These organizations gravely offend God, they hurt others and
they harm creation, all the more so when they have religious overtones.
I also think of the heartbreaking drama of drug abuse, which reaps profits in
contempt of the moral and civil laws. I think of the devastation of natural
resources and ongoing pollution, and the tragedy of the exploitation of labour.
I think too of illicit money trafficking and financial speculation, which often
prove both predatory and harmful for entire economic and social systems,
exposing millions of men and women to poverty. I think of prostitution, which
every day reaps innocent victims, especially the young, robbing them of their
future. I think of the abomination of human trafficking, crimes and abuses
against minors, the horror of slavery still present in many parts of the world;
the frequently overlooked tragedy of migrants, who are often victims of
disgraceful and illegal manipulation. As John XXIII wrote: “There is nothing
human about a society based on relationships of power. Far from encouraging, as
it should, the attainment of people’s growth and perfection, it proves
oppressive and restrictive of their freedom”. Yet human beings can experience conversion; they must never despair of being able to change their
lives. I wish this to be a message of hope and confidence for all, even for
those who have committed brutal crimes, for God does not wish the death of the
sinner, but that he converts and lives (cf. Ez 18:23).
In the broad context of human social relations, when we look to crime and
punishment, we cannot help but think of the inhumane conditions in so many
prisons, where those in custody are often reduced to a subhuman status in
violation of their human dignity and stunted in their hope and desire for
rehabilitation. The Church does much in these environments, mostly in silence.
I exhort and I encourage everyone to do more, in the hope that the efforts being
made in this area by so many courageous men and women will be increasingly
supported, fairly and honestly, by the civil authorities as well.
Fraternity helps to preserve and cultivate nature
9. The human family has received from the Creator a common gift:
nature. The Christian view of creation includes a positive judgement about the
legitimacy of interventions on nature if these are meant to be beneficial and
are performed responsibly, that is to say, by acknowledging the “grammar”
inscribed in nature and by wisely using resources for the benefit of all, with
respect for the beauty, finality and usefulness of every living being and its
place in the ecosystem. Nature, in a word, is at our disposition and we are
called to exercise a responsible stewardship over it. Yet so often we are
driven by greed and by the arrogance of dominion, possession, manipulation and
exploitation; we do not preserve nature; nor do we respect it or consider it a
gracious gift which we must care for and set at the service of our brothers and
sisters, including future generations.
In a particular way, the agricultural sector is the primary
productive sector with the crucial vocation of cultivating and protecting
natural resources in order to feed humanity. In this regard the continuing
disgrace of hunger in the world moves me to share with you the question: How
are we using the earth’s resources? Contemporary societies should reflect
on the hierarchy of priorities to which production is directed. It is a truly
pressing duty to use the earth’s resources in such a way that all may be free
from hunger. Initiatives and possible solutions are many, and are not limited
to an increase in production. It is well known that present production is
sufficient, and yet millions of persons continue to suffer and die from hunger,
and this is a real scandal. We need, then, to find ways by which all may
benefit from the fruits of the earth, not only to avoid the widening gap between
those who have more and those who must be content with the crumbs, but above all
because it is a question of justice, equality and respect for every human
being. In this regard I would like to remind everyone of that necessary
universal destination of all goods which is one of the fundamental
principles of the Church’s social teaching. Respect for this principle is the
essential condition for facilitating an effective and fair access to those
essential and primary goods which every person needs and to which he or she has
a right.
Conclusion
10. Fraternity needs to be discovered, loved, experienced,
proclaimed and witnessed to. But only love, bestowed as a gift from God,
enables us to accept and fully experience fraternity.
The necessary realism proper to politics and economy cannot be
reduced to mere technical know-how bereft of ideals and unconcerned with the
transcendent dimension of man. When this openness to God is lacking, every
human activity is impoverished and persons are reduced to objects that can be
exploited. Only when politics and the economy are open to moving within the
wide space ensured by the One who loves each man and each woman, will they
achieve an ordering based on a genuine spirit of fraternal charity and become
effective instruments of integral human development and peace.
We Christians believe that in the Church we are all members of a
single body, all mutually necessary, because each has been given a grace
according to the measure of the gift of Christ, for the common good (cf. Eph
4:7,25; 1 Cor 12:7). Christ has come to the world so as to bring us
divine grace, that is, the possibility of sharing in his life. This entails
weaving a fabric of fraternal relationships marked by reciprocity, forgiveness
and complete self-giving, according to the breadth and the depth of the love of
God offered to humanity in the One who, crucified and risen, draws all to
himself: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I
have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you
are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:34-35). This
is the good news that demands from each one a step forward, a perennial exercise
of empathy, of listening to the suffering and the hopes of others, even those
furthest away from me, and walking the demanding path of that love which knows
how to give and spend itself freely for the good of all our brothers and
sisters.
Christ embraces all of humanity and wishes no one to be lost. “For
God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world
might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). He does it without oppressing or
constraining anyone to open to him the doors of heart and mind. “Let the
greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves” –
Jesus Christ says – “I am among you as one who serves” (Lk 22:26-27).
Every activity therefore must be distinguished by an attitude of service to
persons, especially those furthest away and less known. Service is the soul of
that fraternity that builds up peace.
May Mary, the Mother of Jesus, help us to understand and live every
day the fraternity that springs up from the heart of her Son, so as to bring
peace to each person on this our beloved earth.
From the Vatican, 8 December 2013
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