World Day of Peace: 01.01.25
Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow @ 12noon
Introduction:
Those responsible for the planning of this New Year’s Day Mass have called it a ‘Mass for Peace and Justice’. It falls on January 1st, in the twelfth hour of a New Year 2025, in the first few days of the Jubilee Year of Hope.
It is customary to pray for peace on the first day of a New Year. Our world is very broken and very cruel, bruite agus briste. It’s incumbent on us all to pray for peace and to be active promoters of peace.
I welcome warmly members of An Garda Síochána, the Defence Forces with the O.N.E. who are providing the colour party for today’s celebration, the Civil Defence and all in Public Service who are the frontline responders to all that happens here in Carlow.
I welcome elected members, as well as executive staff from Carlow County Council. And of course, all of you the faith community of the Cathedral Parish who join us for the Mass this day, those physically present, those tuning in on Parish Radio and those joining through the webcam.
Pope Francis titles his message for this 58th World Day of Peace ‘Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace’. This World Day and the Jubilee Year are a clarion call to action – a time of grace, a time of renewal, a time of taking first steps to resolve a conflict, no one knows who started.
Pope Francis reminds us “God does not weigh up the evils we commit; rather he is immensely ‘rich in mercy, for the great love with which he loved us’[1] ”[2] Conscious of that mercy with which God constantly forgives our sins and forgives our debts, we pray as we enter the sprinkling rite …
Homily:
In his Midnight Mass homily as Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, just over a week ago, he quoted from a prayer written by the late Swiss priest and writer, Fr. Alessandro Pronzato. It read: “Lord, I ask you for a little annoyance, a touch of restlessness, a twinge of regret. At Christmas, I would like to find myself dissatisfied. Happy, but not satisfied. Happy because of what you do, dissatisfied by my lack of response. Please, take away our complacency and hide a few thorns beneath the hay of our all-too-full ‘manger’. Fill us with the desire for something greater”[3].
I love that image of hiding “a few thorns beneath the hay in our all-too-full manger”. Sometimes in shaking out the fleece of hay, a nasty thorn could be lurking there. The thorn might be anything that doesn’t just sit right, it’s out of place with everything around it. So what of this “desire for something greater”? I think this speaks to the theme chosen by David and the planning group around him, calling this a ‘Mass for Peace and Justice’.
It brings me back to the words of the Bishop of Adigrat in the Tigray region of Northern Ethiopia, Abune Tesfaselassie Medhin in his words at the end of the dinner he hosted as we concluded our visit there six weeks ago, he put it bluntly: “we have peace, but we have no justice”. We heard a similar message in the IDP Camps we visited, where the greatest desire on the women we met there, was to return to their homes, or whatever might be left of their homes in West Tigray and other occupied areas. In a war that stretched between November 2020 and November 2022, 3.5M were displaced, while 1M lost their lives. The forced displacement of Tigrayan civilians by Amhara forces and by Eritrean forces is a constant reminder, that while the war may be over, there may be peace to the objective eye but there is no justice. Abune Tesfaselassie reminded us that there were twelve parishes still under occupation by Eritrean forces, parishes he cannot visit and priests who are cut off from the diocesan presbyterate. As the shepherd he is cut off from some of his flock.
We are very familiar with the story of Gaza, where the last operating hospital, the Al Awda Hospital in Northern Gaza is under siege these past few days. Attacks on hospitals and health centres are putting the entire Gaza healthcare system into total collapse. The remaining Israeli hostages, taken by Hamas in October 2023, must also be freed to return home.
We know the story of Ukraine, because like every community in Ireland, here in Carlow we have welcomed you into our homes, our parishes, our schools, our colleges. Many have settled well among us, but there always remains the longing to return home.
We may be less knowledgeable about the Sudan, Myanmar, Syria or Mexico. There are wars and conflicts bubbling right across our continents. Aid to the Church in Need each year conducts a forensic report on the persecution of Christians worldwide, comparing the situation today with what was happened between 2020-2022 and that’s only two years ago, the same period of time as the war in Northern Tigray. Countries where the situation has got worse in these past two years include: Iran, Pakistan, India, China, Sudan, Mozambique, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Nicaragua, Iraq and Eritrea[4].
Pope Francis by using words familiar to us, coming from the Lord’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace” is appealing to our heartstrings, reminding us peace begins here! We have to be patient with peace; it’s never just a moment, it’s several moments, several decisions, several actions, several building blocks. Sometimes there can be frustration when things don’t happen in our timeframe. Building peace takes a lot of time. For it to be real, we have to patiently journey through our many trespasses. Peace is never instant, and if it is, it can be an uneasy peace, a restless peace, a peace without justice. May we all find a few thorns in our ‘manger’, thorns that prompt us to work for a richer peace. Amen.
[1] Eph.2:4
[2] Pope Francis, Message for World Day of Peace, 01 January 2025, ¶9
[3] Pope Francis, Homily, Midnight Mass, St. Peter’s Basilica, 24 December 2024
[4] Data taken from Persecuted and Forgotten, A Report on Christian Oppressed for their Faith 2022-2024, Aid to the Church in Need, pgs. 4-5