January 1, 2025
Dear Friends,
It seems strange to say, “2025.” It seems every year brings new challenges to us, not only as individuals but as a society and a nation. We start the new year with a powerful solemnity of the Mother of God, and a number of Pontiffs have used January 1st as a World Day of Peace. With so many war-torn countries, there is an even greater need to seek and pray for peace throughout the world.
We have heard that “Man desires peace from the very depths of his being.” But he is frequently ignorant of the nature of the benefit for which he intensely aspires, and the paths he follows to obtain it are not always the ways of God. So obviously, we must learn from our sacred tradition and history what the quest for true peace consists of, and we hear God proclaiming the gift of this peace as coming from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.
The hope of the prophets and sages for peace becomes true in Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace—why? It is Christ Jesus who has conquered sin in Him and by Him. But, as long as sin exists and is not dead in every man, and if Christ Jesus has not come on the last day, peace remains a future benefit.
Peace is not just a mere absence of war. It is the fruit of justice and love, and justice and love must come from our desires and actions toward each other. In essence, we are responsible for promoting peace, especially in our families, communities, and the world. Peace must first be deeply rooted in each of our hearts and then spread to our families and others. When there is a desire to promote this peace, it can only grow in the world when there is respect for justice in the very love and hearts of our people. St. John Paul II has been quoted as saying, “War is always a defeat for humanity.” This is evident from the current conflicts in Israel and Ukraine.
Pope Francis, in his message for World Day of Peace of January 1, 2025—which is also the Jubilee Year of Grace—instructs that the Jubilee Year of Grace is an opportunity for all of us to set all on a journey of hope, born of the experience of God’s unlimited mercy. He stated, and this is a powerful statement, “God owes nothing to anyone, yet he constantly bestows his grace and mercy upon all. 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.’ (Eph 2:4) We would do well [as he continues to teach that God] constantly forgives our sins and forgives our every debt, so that our hearts may overflow with hope and peace.”
The Holy Father’s desire for 2025 is direct and very concrete: for peace to flourish, it must go “beyond quibbling over details and human compromise.” That true peace has to be sought by having “hearts disarmed”—hearts that do not calculate “what is mine and what is yours”; hearts that are ready “to reach out to others”; “hearts that see themselves as indebted to God and thus prepare to forgive the debts that oppress others; and hearts that replace anxiety about the future with the hope that every individual can be a resource for the building of a better world.”
f. Abbot Sharbel Ewen, O.S.B.
Prince of Peace Abbey
